MATERNITY: 


OR    THE 


BEARING   AND   NURSING 


OF    CHILDREN. 


INCLUDING 


FEMALE    EDUCATION    AND    BE  A  FIT. 


BY   O.  S.  FOWLER, 

ZDITOR  OF  THK  AMERICAN   PffRENOLOQlC iL  J 


She  ii  queen  on  earth  who  brings  forth  and  brings  up  the  te«t  cv  11 1-  H» 

A  perfect  mother  is  a  perfect  beauty. 

Oh  I  I  had  rather  bear  one  flne  child,  than  enjoy  all  other  ei ,  ^      good 


NEW    YORK: 

POWL.KR      AND    WELLS,   PUBLISHERS, 

No.    808    BEOADWAT. 


jjttared,  according  to  act  of  Gongresa,  in  tiie  year  1848,  by 

0.    S.    FOWLER, 
fa  the  Clork's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  tli3  SoutLDrn  District  of  New  York. 


PREFACE, 


THAT  the  vaiious  states  of  the  mother's  mind  and  oody 
Defore  the  birth  of  offspring,  go  far  toward  determining  their 
health  or  debility,  amiableness  or  ill  nature,  intelligence  or 
stupidity,  and  all  their  other  mental  characteristics,  is  a  mo- 
mentous truth  which  all  prospective  mothers  should  fully 
understand,  and  which  renders  child- bearing  inconceivably 
momentous  in  its  influence  on  human  destiny.  To  the  eluci- 
dation and  enforcement  of  this  eventful  law  of  nature,  this 
work  is  devoted.  It  teaches  mothers  what  regimen  and  con- 
ditions, in  them,  will  secure  the  best  constituted  children  ; 
shows  how  to  provide  beforehand  for  a  safe  and  easy  delivery  ; 
teaches  husbands  what  duties  they  owe  their  wives  during 
pregnancy  and  nursing  ;  gives  directions  respecting  infantile 
regimen,  and  the  early  habits  and  management  of  children; 
and,  last  but  not  least,  it  shows  how  to  prepare  girls  to  bear- a 
far  higher  order  of  children,  as  well  as  how  to  rear  them  after 
they  are  borne ;  that  is,  it  shows  how  to  fit  them  for  the  great 
function  of  the  female,  namely,  CHILD-BEARING  and  REARING. 
It  moreover,  in  doing  this,  analyzes  female  beauty.  In  short, 
it  reflects  upon  this  whole  subject  the  sunlight  of  Phrenology, 
Physiology,  and  Magnetism  ;  and  as  such,  supplies  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  author's  other  works  on  man's  social  re- 
lations. Thus,  his  "  Matrimony"  treats  SELECTION,  COURT- 
SHIP, and  MARRIED  life  phrenologically  ;  his  "  Hereditary  De- 
scent" applies  the  laws  of  transmission  to  the  perfection  of  the 
ORIGINAL  CONSTITUTION  of  offspring,  by  showing  what  unions 
will  produce  the  most  highly  endowed  germs  of  humanity ; 
while  his  "  Love  and  Parentage"  teaches  husbands  and  wives 
into  what  states  of  mind  and  body  they  should  throw  them- 
selves in  order  to  stamp  the  highest  order  of  mental  and  phys- 
ical organization  upon  prospective  offspring,  or  how  tc  PA« 


IV  PREFACE. 

BENT  offspring.  This  work  crowns  the  climax,  by  teaching 
mothers  how  to  CARRY  children,  that  is,  how  to  manage  them- 
selves while  fulfilling  the  highest  and  only  SPECIFIC  relations 
of  the  female  as  such,  namely,  the  maternal.  His  "  Physiol- 
ogy," "  Self-Culture,"  "  Memory,"  "  Religion,"  etc.,  then 
complete  this  range  of  subjects,  by  showing  how  to  conduct 
the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  education  and  govern- 
ment of  the  young  in  accordance  with  the  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  laws  of  our  being.*  When  mankind  understand 
and  obey  the  laws  of  love,  matrimony,  generation,  maternity, 
and  education,  will  the  millennium  open  upon  our  benighted 
world  in  very  deed,  and  our  race  be  regenerated  and  infinite- 
ly exalted,  but  not  till  then.  Right  education  can  do  much, 
yet  infinitely  more  when  its  subjects  are  endowed  by  NATURE 
with  strong  physical,  high  moral,  and  powerful  intellectual 
capabilities,  than  when  they  are  weakly,  vicious,  and  addle- 
brained  by  CONSTITUTION.  These  reproductive  and  education- 
al laws,  understood  and  applied,  will  almost  banish  sin  and 
suffering  from  our  earth,  restore  to  all  mankind  the  garden  of 
Eden  in  ten-fold  luxuriance,  and  render  our  world  a  literal 
paradise  of  holiness  and  happiness.  Man,  so  far  from  being 
a  base-born  son  of  perdition,  "  is  created  in  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God"  himself,  and  all  required  to  restore  to  him 
his  primitive  god-like  capabilities  and  perfections,  is  RIGHT 
GENERATION,  BEARING,  and  EDUCATION.  Prospective  mothers, 
be  conjured,  by  all  the  ecstacy  of  maternal  joy  with  which 
splendid  children  will  swell  your  exulting  souls,  and  by  all 
that  untold  shame  and  anguish  with  which  their  inferiority 
and  depravity  will  rend  your  souls  perpetually,  to  LEARN  and 
FULFILL  these  infinitely-momentous  relations. 


402.       PROPRIETY    OF    OUR    SUBJECT. 

Some  condemn  this  subject  as  improper  and  injurious ;  but 
if  it  be  so  incompatible  with  female  purity  to  study  these 

*  All  these  works  will  be  intimately  related  to  each  ocher,  arranged 
!n  volumes,  bound  in  uniform  stvle.  and  entitled,  "  Phrenological  Li 
brary." 


PREFACE.  V 

maternal  relations,  how  much  more  so  to  FULFILL  them! 
Away  with  such  prudery  !  It  is  a  relict  of  American  squeam 
ishness,  as  unnatural  as  it  is  injurious,  and  fast  passing  away. 
Whether  the  author's  MODE  OF  PRESENTING  this  subject  is  or 
is  not  judicious,  is  another  matter.  Of  this,  mothers  are  his 
judges,  because  they  have  lost  their  fastidiousness,  yet  retain 
all  their  true  delicacy ;  but  neither  girls  or  old  maids  are 
proper  umpires.  Thousands  of  mothers,  after  having  heard 
his  lecture  on  this  subject,  have  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  I  would  have 
given  the  world  to  have  known  this  at  my  marriage  !"  LOVE 
OF  OFFSPRING  is  one  of  woman's  predominant  and  most  charm- 
ing  characteristics.  Hence  her  hungering  and  thirsting  after 
this  species  of  knowledge.  Nor  should  the  maiden  blush 
to  learn  how  to  fulfill  those  maternal  relations  which  are  as 
much  a  necessary  consequence  of  marriage,  as  heat  of  fire. 
For  what  but  to  bear  children  was  woman — was  the  female 
AS  SUCH — created?  For  what  else  was  the  conjugal  instinct 
ordained  ?  Nor  should  any  female  ever  be  led  to  the  hyme- 
nial  altar  till  she  knows  how  to  manage  herself  at  this  period. 
My  daughters  must  understand  this  whole  subject  thoroughly. 
None  are  marriageable  till  they  do.  Nor  can  young  women 
learn  any  thing  of  equal  value  to  themselves  or  their  prospec- 
tive offspring,  or  neglect  to,  learn  any  thing  equally  at  their 
peril.  To  show  woman  how  to  bring  forth  and  bring  up  a 
high  order  of  human  beings,  instead  of  those  scrawny,  imbe- 
cile, and  depraved  offcasts  which  throng  our  earth :  to  save 
mothers  from  those  pains  and  premature  deaths  now  so  inci- 
dent to  maternity,  are  these  pages  sent  forth.  May  they 
make  better  MOTHERS  and  better  HUSBANDS  of  all  who  read 
them. 

403.       EXPLANATION    OF    THE    SMALL    RAISED    FIGURES    OF    . 
REFERENCE. 

To  secure  all  the  advantages  of  copious  repetition  without 
any  of  its  evils,  or  even  disfiguring  the  page,  and  to  present 
the  various  bearings  of  the  various  points  treated  in  this 
work  upon  each  other,  as  well  as  to  form  into  one  connected 
series  all  the  author's  works,  each  general  principle  proved 
1* 


Vl  PREF>  IE. 

and  point  presented  in  them  all  has  ils  appropriate  heading 
NUMBERED,  and  reference  is  made  to  them  by  small  elevated 
figures  called  SUPERIORS.  And  the  various  works  referred  to 
are  designated  thus:  P17  refers  to  that  passage  of  Physiology 
numbered  17;  8  to  "Self-Culture,"  M  to  "Memory,"  m  to 
"Maternity,"  My  to  "  Matrimony,"  w  to  "  Woman,"  R  to  "  Re- 
ligion,"  etc.  The  utility  of  this  original  device  of  thus  con- 
necting  and  fortifying  subjects  in  hand  by  those  previously 
presented,  will  doubtless  be  appreciated  by  thorough  readers 
who  would  comprehend  the  bearings  of  the  principles  present- 
ed on  each  other,  and  grasp  and  digest  each  work,  or  all  hw 
writings,  as  a  whole  ;  yet  each  book  can  be  as  fully  under- 
•tood  separately  as  if  such  reference  had  not  been  made. 


CONTENTS 


SECTION  I. 

PHYSICAL    RELATION    OF    OFFSPRING    TO    THE    MOTHEX. 

404.  Every  thing  must  have  its  Mother — 408.  Intimacy  of  the  Rela- 
tions of  Child  to  Mother — 406.  Appeal  to  Prospective  Mothers.       11-18 


SECTION  II. 

THE  NOURISHMENT  OF  THE  EMBRYO. 

407.  The  Embryo's  requisition  for  Nutrition — 408.  Amount  of  Nutri 
tion  required — 409.  The  Female  Secretion — 410.  The  Bearing  Procesi 
increases  Appetite — 411.  All  very  young  Animals  require  extra  Care— 

412.    Weakness  invites  Disease — 413.    Mrs.   G 's   Miscarriage  and 

Death  ;  Cause — 414.  Castigation  of  wife-neglecting  Husbands — Appeal 
to  Husbands — 415.  What  Husbands  should  do  at  this  Period — 416.  Di- 
rections to  pregnant  Mothers — Sleep  much — Let  nothing  disturb  your 
night's  rest — Your  food  be  nutritious,  yet  easy  of  digestion — Breethe 
copiously  of  fresh  air — Regular  evacuations  are  particularly  important — 

417.  Signs  of  Maternal  Qualifications — Rationale  of  Female  Fashions— 

418.  The  constituent  Elements  of  the  Feminine — 419.  Female  Beauty; 
in  what  does  it  consist  1 — 420.   Philosophy  of  Bustles,  Corsets,  Extra 
Skirts,  etc. — Philosophy  of  the  Bustle — Cotton  and  plaited  Breastwork* 
—421.   Let  Woman  be  what  she  would  seem — 422.   Effects  of  these 
False   Appearances  on    the  young    Bridegroom — 423     True   Mode  of 
increasing  the  Beauty  of  Girls — 424.   Blighted  Love  weakens  the  Fe- 


Vlll  CONTEXTS. 

male  Organs  and  Charms — 425.  Appeal  to  Man — 426.  Early  Marriages 
and  yoang  Mothers — 427.  Tight  Lacing  ;  its  ruinous  Effects  on  Offspring 
— 428.  Requisition  for  Heat,  Muscle,  Bone,  Nitrogen,  etc. — Muscle- 
Nitrogen — Fruit — 42.9.  Offsetting  the  Mother's  Excesses  and  Defects— 
430.  Marks  and  Deformities — A  Strawberry  mark — A  Lobster  mark — 
Mouse  marks — Plum  marks — Cherry  marks — Amputated  Thumb — A 
Wine  mark — Turning  black  and  blue— Fife  mark — A  mark  of  intoxi- 
cation— A  Menagery  mark — A  Monkey  mark — An  idiotic  mark — Mark 
by  fright — A  broken  back — Mrs.  Butler  and  her  strong,  but  frantic 
Idiot — A  club-footed  mark — A  Cat  mark — The  mashed  Head — Dumb- 
-Hankering  after  Gin — Explanation  of  these  Marks.  .  .  18-105 


SECTION  III. 

INFLUENCE    OF   THE    VARIOUS    STATES    OF    MATERNAL    MEN- 
TALITY,   OR    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHARACTER    OF    OFFSPRING. 

431.  The  Child's  Mentality  derived  directly  from  its  Mother's— 
Hagar  and  Ishmael — Samuel  and  his  Mother — Mary  and  Christ — Bo- 
naparte's fcetal  History — James  I. — A  timid  Friend  of  the  Author — 
Mrs.  D.  and  her  Children — A  half-starved,  despairing  Mother — The 
Son  who  could  never  face  his  Father — A  foolish,  but  fiendish  Son — A 
provoked  Mother  and  provoking  Child — Mrs.  M'C.  and  her  Bonaparte- 
admiring  Son — Sweetness  of  temper  in  the  Mother — Duty  of  Husbands 
to  their  Wives  at  this  period — Bad-tempered  Children  to  be  pitied — 
The  bad-dispositioned  Daughter — How  to  secure  Affection  in  Children — 
Fear  and  Anxiety  in  Mothers — 432.  How  to  endow  Children  with 
euperior  natural  Intellects  before  Birth — The  arithmetical  Girl — Zera 
Colburn's  foetal  History — 433.  Securing  Balance  in  Offspring — The 
Regimen  required  at  different  stages  of  Advancement — 434.  Appeal  to 
Mothers. 106-156 

SECTION  IV. 

DELIVERY ITS    PAINS    LESSENED 

435.  Severe  Labor-Pains  unnatural  and  avoidable — Are  they  neces- 
sary T— Natural  Delivery  easy — Causes  of  severe  and  dangerous  Labor— 


CONTENTS.  iX 

Sedentary  Habits — Mode  of  obviating  Labor-Pains — A  vigorous  muscu- 
lar System— 437.  Developing  the  Muscles  of  Girls — 438.  The  Midwife's 
Office — Water-Cure  in  Child-Bearing — Case  of  Mrs.  Shew — Bleeding, 
Chloroform,  etc. — Male  and  female  Midwives — Fitting  Women  for  Mid- 
wives — Female  Practitioners  for  female  Complaints— 439.  Abortion— 
440.  Recovery  from  Confinement — Relapses— The  Diet  of  recently- 
confined  Mothers — 441.  The  Nursing  and  Management  of  Infants — Timo 
of  cutting  the  Navel  Cord — Washing — Dressing — "  A  Dose  of  Sweet 
Oil" — Natural  Food  of  Infants — Large  Breasts — Times  of  Nursing — 
The  crying  of  Children — Management  of  sick  Children — Nursing  Chil- 
dren when  the  Mother  is  angry — How  long  shall  Children  nurse  ? — 
442.  The  Education  of  Infants — Retain  their  Normality — 443.  Female 
Beauty ;  its  elements  and  perfection — A  handsome  set  of  Teeth- 
Plumpness  of  Form — Bright,  clear,  expressive  Eyes — A  fine,  soft  Skin, 
and  fine  Hair — Auburn-colored  Hair — Fine,  glossy,  black  Hair — Grace 
and  ease  of  Motion — Perfection  of  Form — Strong  social  Faculties — A 
high  moral  Tone — Superior  intellectual  Endowments — Female  Home 
lines*  and  Deformity — 444.  What  is  wanted  m  a  HusbaH  or  Wife  ? 

156-221 


MATERNITY. 


SECTION  I 

PHYSICAL    RELATIONS    OF    OFFSPRING    TO    THE    MOTHER. 

404.       EVERY    THING    MUST    HAVE    ITS    MOTHER. 

MATERNITY  is  the  door  through  which  all  that  lives  en- 
ters upon  its  terrestrial  existence.  As  earth  is  the  com- 
mon mother  of  all  those  endless  forms  of  life  within  and 
upon  her,  so  every  vegetable,  every  animal,  every  human 
being,  has  each  its  own  specific  mother.  Thus  ihe  fruit 
tree  is  the  mother  of  those  seed-bearing  fruits  which  re- 
produce their  kind,  while  the  pulp,  or  edible  portion,  is 
to  the  seed,  what  its  mother's  milk  is  to  the  infant  ani- 
mal— a  deposite  of  nutrition,  to  feed  and  moisten  it  till 
it  can  take  root,  so  as  to  sustain  independent  life.  And 
thus  of  all  berries,  nuts,  and  the  seeds  of  every  tree  and 
shrub  that  grows ;  while  the  straw  of  grains,  grasses, 
weeds,  and  herbs,  are  their  veritable  mothers,  and  the 
edible  portion  of  grains  and  seeds  is  to  the  chit,  or 
germ,  what  the  maternal  breast  is  to  animal  and  man. 
Potatoes,  onions,  bulbous  roots,  etc.,  all  have  their 
mothers,  and,  in  turn,  become  mothers  ;  and  thus  of  all 
that  grows  upon  the  face  of  the  whole  earth. 

This  maternal  law  likewise  governs  every  species, 
every  individual  of  the  animal  kingdom.  The  femalo 


12  RELATIONS    OF    OFFSPRING    TO    THE    MOTHER. 

fowl  is  the  moUier  of  the  egg,  and  the  fish  of  the  spawn, 
by  which  all  feathered,  all  finned,  all  the  reptile  tribes, 
reproduce  their  kinds ;  and  these  eggs  and  spawn,  be- 
sides containing  the  life-germ,  likewise  embody,  in  com- 
mon with  fruits,  grains,  roots,  and  seeds,  a  nutritious 
deposite,  in  the  form  of  the  yolk,  to  feed  the  embryo 
during  the  process  of  hatching.  All  lower  forms  of 
life  are  equally  governed  by  this  maternal  law.  So  are 
all  higher.  Every  individual  of  all  the  mammalia  tribes 
• — horses,  cattle,  dogs,  lions,  tigers,  swine,  sheep — all 
four-footed  beasts  and  creeping  things,  are  offsprings  of 
their  specific  mothers,  and,  where  nature  has  her  per- 
fect work,  receive  nourishment  from  her  life-giving 
milk. 

All  human  beings,  savage  and  civilized,  past,  present, 
and  to  come,  likewise  owe  their  existence  to  this  mater- 
nal instrumentality.  Who  of  us  all  but  owes  an  eter- 
nal debt  of  gratitude  to  our  mother,  for,  at  least,  bring- 
ing us  into  the  world,  if  not  for  nursing  and  caring  for 
us  till  able  to  take  care  of  ourselves?  Heathenish 
wretches  they,  who  neglect  their  own  mother,  even 
though  she  may  abuse  them ;  and  let  us  all  cling  to  and 
cherish  our  mothers,  with  filial  piety,  nor  fail  to  admin- 
ister to  their  every  comfort,  to  our  utmost  capacity. 

405.       INTIMACY    OF    THE    RELATIONS    OF    CHILD    TO    MOTHER. 

Nor  is  it  unimportant  to  the  recipient  of  life,  who  or 
what  is  its  mother.  On  the  contrary,  "  like  mother  like 
offspring."  That  law,  "EACH  AFTER  ITS  KIND,"  so  fully 
explained  in  Hereditary  Descent301,  applies  to  mater- 
nity quite  as  forcibly  as  to  parentage.  Be  the  mother 
vegetable,  or  tree,  or  creeping  thing,  or  fowl,  or  brute, 
or  human,  what  she  bears  will  partake  of  her  structure, 


THEIR    RECIPROCITY.  19 

form,  and  nature,  mental  and  physical,  both  general  and 
specific.  This  is  a  necessary  institute  of  nature.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise  ?  How  incongruous  for  a  tree  to 
bear  a  brute,  or  a  human  mother  a  lion !  How  wise 
how  promotive  of  happiness,  this  law  that  "like  bears 
like  r 

Nor  does  this  maternal  law  of  similarity  govern  the 
various  orders,  genera,  and  species,  of  the  vegetable 
and  animal  kingdoms,  in  their  general  peculiarities 
merely.  It  likewise  extends  even  to  all  the  MINUTIAE  of 
their  respective  characteristics  and  relations.  Not  only 
is  the  offspring  of  the  human  being  also  human — endow- 
ed with  all  the  physical  organs  and  mental  elements  of 
humanity  in  general — but  it  likewise  takes  on  all  those 
minor  shadings  and  phases  which  characterize  the 
mother.  That  same  blood  which  sustains  and  re-sup- 
plies the  organs  of  the  mother,  forms  and  nourishes 
those  of  her  embryo.  The  blood  is  the  grand  instru- 
mentality of  all  nutrition,  of  all  formation,  of  univer- 
sal life.  All  those  materials  out  of  which  all  parts 
of  the  infantile  body  are  formed,  are  conveyed  to  their 
respective  places  of  destination  by  means  of  the  blood. 
And  since  it  is  the  grand  messenger  and  instrument- 
ality of  life,  as  is  this  blood  so  is  that  life  which  it  pro- 
duces. Now,  since  the  child  is  formed  out  of  its  moth- 
er's blood,  and  since  the  mother  must  be  like  her  own 
blood,  and  the  child  like  this  same  blood,  of  course, 
mother  and  child  must  be  alike,  because  both  are  like  the 
mother's  blood.  True,  the  nature  of  the  father  is  faith- 
fully repiesented  in  the  seminal  germ,  as  fully  shown  in 
"  Love  and  Parentage,"  yet  the  child's  partaking  of  this 
nature  does  not  prevent  its  taking  on  that  of  the  mother 
likewise.  The  reception  of  the  paterna  pature  in  no 


14  LAT10NS    OF    OFFSPRING    TO    THE    MOTHER. 

wise  expels,  or  even  smothers,  that  of  the  maternal. 
The  former  may  be  stronger,  in  some  cases,  than  the. 
latter,  but  what  there  is  of  the  latter  will  be  THERE,  and 
all  there.  Indeed,  this  apparent  exception  proves  our 
lule  ;  for,  when  the  maternal  nature  is  weak,  and,  there- 
fore, but  faintly  impressed  upon  her  progeny,  does  not 
this  debility  of  these  maternal  qualities,  in  both  mother 
and  child,  establish  the  perfect  reciprocity  of  the  inter- 
relation existing  between  them  ?  This  is  one  of  the 
very  proofs  of  our  law,  and  shows  mothers  how,  by 
STRENGTHENING  this  or  that  quality,  as  occasion  may 
require,  in  themselves,  to  transmit  it,  thus  enhanced,  to 
their  progeny.  Indeed,  this  is  the  great  thought,  the 
prevailing  moral,  of  our  work. 

The  fact  that  the  various  conditions  oi  the  mother — 
vegetable,  animal,  and  human — while  bearing,  affects 
the  progeny,  is  so  palpably  apparent,  as  to  have  im- 
pressed itself,  though  only  indistinctly,  upon  the  pub- 
lic mind.  Why  do  we  ;^lant  the  largest  and  fairest  ears 
of  corn,  and  raise  o'ur  seed-grain — seed  every  thing — 
on  our  richest  fields  ?  Because  the  better  the  maternal 
stock  is  fed,  the  fairer  the  progeny,  and  the  better  adapt- 
ed to  re-produce  still  fairer  and  better  grain.  Why  are 
we  so  very  careful  to  feed  well,  and  not  to  overwork, 
and  especially  overdraw,  our  breeding  mares,  during 
the  entire  period  they  are  with  foal  ?  Because,  setting 
a  great  deal  by  colts,  experience  has  taught  us,  that  the 
various  states  of  the  mother  during  carriage,  materi- 
ally affect  their  size,  beauty,  and  usefulness.  Mothers, 
especially,  evince  extra  care  for  them,  at  this  period, 
and  see  that  they  are  doubly  cared  for;  yet,  those  who 
appreciate  this  point  most,  far  underrate  its  influence  on 
the  unborn  progeny. 


THEIR     INTIMACY.  J5 

Is,  then,  the  human  mother  an  exception  to  this  univer- 
gal  law  of  the  maternal  states  as  influencing  progeny  ? 
Is  she  not,  even,  its  highest  example  ?  Is  it  not  a  fea- 
ture of  this  law,  that,  the  higher  the  grade  of  vegetable 
or  animal,  the  more  intimate  this  relation  between  moth- 
er and  progeny,  and  the  more  her  states  of  body  and 
mind  affect  its  physiology  ar\d  mentality?  Why  do 
vegetable  and  brute  mothers  cast  their  seed  and  young 
the  sooner,  the  lower  they  are  in  the  scale  of  being,  and 
carry  them  longer  and  longer,  as  a  general  thing,  the 
stronger  and  more  perfect  the  animal  or  vegetable? 
So  that  the  progeny  may  imbibe  more  of  its  mother's 
strength,  and  become  the  more  perfected  at  the  very 
starting  point  of  life.  But,  to  argue  the  fact  of  such 
relations  is  superfluous  ;  and  that  the  reciprocity  is  PER- 
FECT between  the  states  of  mother  and  embryo,  will  be 
seen  as  we  proceed.  Suffice  it  to  sum  up  this  point  by 
applying  to  it  that  law  of  UNIVERSALITY,  demonstrated 
and  often  referred  to  in  the  author's  works,  that  where 
cause  and  effect  govern  a  PART  of  a  given  class  of 
functions,  they  govern  the  WHOLE  of  that  class  p- 1T. 
Nature  never  works  by  piecemeal.  What  she  does  at 
all,  she  does  by  WHOLESALE.  If  ANY  ONE  state  of  the 
mother,  however  extreme,  during  carriage,  produces  the 
least  effect  on  her  offspring — and  who  does  not  KNOW  that 
it  does? — then  EVERY  CONCEIVABLE  state  of  the  maternity 
affects  the  embryo.  Either  the  whole,  down  to  the  mi- 
nutest item  of  health,  intellect,  and  feeling,  or  else  no- 
thing. If  any  one  state  of  the  mother's  mirid  or  body 
causes,  or  induces,  a  corresponding  state  of  the  child's 
mind  or  body,  then  must  every  possible  state  of  the 
maternity  similarly  modify  the  original  nature  of  the 
offspring. 


16  DELATIONS    Of    OFFSPRING    TO    THE    MOTHEB. 

406.       APPEAL    TO    PROSPECTIVE    MOTHERS. 

Bear  it  then  in  mind,  ye  mothers  of  our  race,  thai  as 
you  are  while  bearing  every  child,  so  will  be  that  child. 
Every  pulsation  of  health  in  you,  will  throb  through 
their  young  veins.  Every  pang  of  grief  you  feel,  will 
leave  its  painful  scar  on  the  forming  disk  of  their  souls. 
Every  flash  of  sweet  and  pleasurable  emotion  you  ex- 
perience, will  sweeten  and  beautify,  not  their  conduct 
merely,  but  stamp  the  original  impress  of  amiableness 
and  goodness  upon  their  inmost  souls.  Every  intellect- 
ual effort  you  put  forth,  will  it  not  render  them  the  more 
thoughtful  by  nature,  the  more  fond  of  study,  the  more 
clear-headed,  contemplative,  intelligent,  and  talented? 
And  every  exercise  of  anger,  every  feeling  of  temper, 
every  item  of  crossness  and  fretfulness  in  you,  at  this 
period,  will  it  not  brand  this  hating  and  hateful  spirit 
mto  their  inmost  souls,  to  haunt  them  as  long  as 
they  exist,  here  or  hereafter?  Will  you,  then,  render 
them  demoniacal,  when  you  can  make  them  angelic  ? 
Will  you  even  give  this  eventful  subject  the  go-by  ? 
What  other  compares  with  it,  in  its  momentous  bear- 
ing on  your  and  their  present  and  eternal  health, 
virtue,  and  happiness  ?  Why  have  mothers  thus  neg- 
lected it?  And  will  you  still  continue  to  render  YOUR 
OWN  DEAR  CHILDREN  devils  incarnate — and  that  by  your 
own  sinfulness — instead  of  imbuing  them  with  the  spirit 
of  love  and  goodness,  by  cultivating  the  heavenly 
virtues  in  ^our  own  souls  ?  Hear,  O  ye  mothers  of 
our  race  !  Learn  the  mighty  import  of  those  eventful 
relations  you  are  COMPELLED  to  fulfill.  Turn  a  deaf  ear, 
ye  who  will,  and,  worse  than  the  neglectful  ostrich,  tor- 
tiire  your  children,  and,  through  them,  your  own  selves, 


APPEAL    TO    M.  THERS.  17 

with  satanic  predispositions  ;  and,"when  grown,  flay  them 
alive,  in  vain  attempts  to  beat  out  of  tbf  m,  by  the  cruel 
lash,  what  your  own  selves  burnt  into  their  inner  na- 
tures in  embryo ;  but  ye  who  are  true  to  your  mater- 
nal relations,  will  pause — will  pray  for  light,  and  eager- 
ly clasp  to  your  maternal  bosom,  whatever  will  enable 
vou  to  stamp  a  higher  and  ho.ier  impress  upon  your 
prospective  little  ones.  Oh,  I  do  admire  the  motherly  in 
woman — the  love  she  bears  to  her  darling  infant !  Ev- 
ery thing  which  appertains  to  this  subject,  sweeps  the 
most  powerful  chord  of  woman's  soul  8- 222  with,  to  her, 
the  most  thrilling  of  all  notes.  Woman,  married  and 
single,  I  KNOW  I  SHALL  HAVE  YOUR  EYES,  EARS,  AND  IN- 
MOST SOULS.  NOTHING  ELSE  DO  YOU  ECIUALLY  DESIRE  TO 
LEARN.  NOTHING  ELSE  COMPARES  WITH  THIS  IN  INTRIN- 
SIC INTEREST,  OR  IN  ITS  BEARING  ON  HUMAN  DESTINY. 

Woman,  a  new  era  is  dawning  on  our  race.  The 
American  and  European  revolutions  are  no  trifles.  They 
are  the  harbingers  of  the  millennium.  As  Christ  came 
out  of  the  expected  channel,  so  will  the  future  day  glory. 
Republicanism  is  its  usher — its  mother.  As  republican- 
ism here,  in  a  single  generation,  hurled  those  old  thrones 
to  the  ground,  and  is  sweeping  the  entire  feudal  order 
of  things,  with  the^)esom  of  destruction,  in  one  genera- 
tion, it  will,  in  the  next,  completely  renovate  and  regen- 
erate society,  purge  it  of  all  existing  evils,  political, 
civil,  and  religious,  and  prepare  our  race  for  a  great 
advance — for  a  mighty  ascent  toward  heaven.  And 
what  we  now  want  is,  A  CORRESPONDINGLY  HIGHER  ORDER 

OF     HUMAN     BEINGS,    TO     ENTER     UPON     THIS     PROSPECTIVE 

GLORY.     AND  YOU  MUST  PRODUCE  them.     Oh,  what  chil- 
dren you  could  bear,  if  you  knew  just  how  to  carry 
them  !     Inconceivably  more  powerful  and  perfect  than 
2* 


18        THE  NOURISHMENT  OF  THE  EMBRYO. 

any  numan  beings  now  on  earth !  And  SOME  OF  YCU 
WILL  LEARN.  This  subject  is  too  palpable — too  momen- 
tous— to  be  longer  neglected.  And  those  who  heed  not 
— practice  not — must  be  content  with  inferior,  ill-na- 
tured, depraved  children.  But  to  those  who  would 
learn,  that  they  may  practice,  the  maternal  laws,  so  as 
to  bear  magnificent  offspring,  are  these  pages  addressed. 


SECTION  II. 
THE  NOURISHMENT  OF  THE  EMBRYO. 

407.     THE  EMBRYO'S  REQUISITION  FOR  NUTRITION. 

THE  maternal  function,  vegetable  and  animal,  is  com- 
posed of  two  departments — the  RECEPTION  of  the  gerrn 
of  life,  and  its  NUTRITION.  How  infinitely  much  de- 
pends upon  the  former — upon  the  mental  states  of  both 
father  and  mother  when  they  unite  to  stamp  the  impress 
of  life  upon  issue — the  author  has  shown  in  "  LOVE  AND 
PARENTAGE  :"  as  well  as  how  much  depends  on  the  for- 
mer, and  how  much  upon  the  latter — a  subject  which 
prospective  mothers  are  most  solemnly  bound  to  investi- 
gate. NOURISHING  the  life-germ,  tilljt  has  acquired  suffi- 
cient strength  to  sustain  independent  life,  is  the  second 
great  maternal  function.  Nor  is  a  mother  less  necessa- 
ry here,  than  in  generation  itself. 

As  no  living  thing  can  be  generated  without  maternal 
agency,  co-operating  with  paternal,  so  no  vegetable  or 
animal  con  be  reproduced  without  a  mother  to  NOURISH 
it  during  the  first  stages  of  its  existence.  What  would 
become  of  embryo  seed,  grain,  root,  fruit,  or  animal,  if 


AMOUNT    REUUIRED.  19 

separated  from  its  mother  the  moment  generation  had 
taken  place  ?  The  entire  time  between  the  blowing  and 
seed  ripening  of  all  forms  of  vegetable  life  is  one  continual 
drainage  of  maternal  nutrition  for  the  embryo.  Pluck  a 
flower  or  head  of  grain  as  soon  as  impregnation  has 
been  effected,  and  what  becomes  of  the  seed?  Tear 
the  brute  or  human  ovum  from  the  mother  the  moment 
parental  intercourse  has  taken  place,  and  how  soon  it 
dies.  Fowl,  fish,  reptile,  may  at  first  seem  to  be  excep- 
tions, but,  observe,  all  eggs  and  spawn  are  furnished  by 
the  mother  with  a  nutritious  deposite,  in  the  form  of  the 
yolk,  the  sole  object  of  which  is  to  feed  the  embryo  till 
able  to  eat  for  itself.  Why  does  the  maternal  stalk  of 
grain,  straw,  grass,  weed,  beet,  bulb,  etc.,  fade  and  die 
as  soon  as  it  has  ripened  its  seed?  Because  its  entire 
stock  of  nutrition — and  it  puts  forth  its  every  energy 
to  augment  that  stock  at  this  period — is  drawn  from  it 
by  its  ripening  seed,  and  in  ORDER  to  such  ripening.  The 
sole  object  of  the  life  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  mother 
after  impregnation,  is  to  thus  nourish  the  embryo  seed. 
Every  leaf,  every  root,  every  branch,  evey  item  of 
growth  is  for  this  purpose,  and  this  only. 

408.       AMOUNT    OF    NUTRITION    REQUIRED. 

So,  too,  the  draft  of  the  animal  embryo  on  its  mother 
for  vitality,  is  even  greater.  The  latter  does  not,  indeed, 
like  the  former,  die  the  moment  she  completes  her  first 
reproduction,  because  her  life  is  required  for  subsequent 
ones,  but  her  embryo's  draft  on  her  life-power  is  as  much 
above  that  of  vegetable  seed  on  its  mother,  as  animal 
surpasses  vegetable.*  And  it  is  indeed  a  general  law, 

*  The  fact  that  many  other  females,  as  the  horse,  cow,  elephant,  lion- 
«H,  etc.,  carry  their  young  quite  as  long  as  the  human  mother,  may  seem 


80  TSTAL    NUTRITION. 

that  the  higher  the  order  of  vegetable  or  animal,  the  more 
exhausting  the  reproductive  process.  Thus  a  single 
vegetable  often  reproduces  millions — and  the  more  the 
lower  the  grade — and  the  inferior  animals,  fish,  toads 
frogs,  etc.,  multiply  hundreds  and  thousands  of  times  fast- 
er than  horses,  cattle,  elephants,  tigers,  lions,  monkeys,  or 
man,  because  the  higher  graded  the  offspring,  the  more 
life  it  requires  from  the  first  for  the  formation  of  organs, 
and  imparting  to  them  the  required  impetus  in  the  start. 
Is  it  not  reasonable  that  the  greater  the  number  of  the 
embryo's  organs,  and  the  more  numerous  and  powerful  its 
functions,  the  more  sustenance  it  requires  to  draw  from  its 
mother,  both  to  form  these  organs,  and  to  support  the 
requisite  power  of  function  till  independent  life  is  estab- 
lished ? 

But  why  dwell  thus?  Why  amplify  a  principle  which 
needs  only  to  be  stated  to  be  admitted  ?  Because  I  wish 
to  impress,  not  merely  the  law  itself,  but  also  its  BREADTH 
and  POWER.  Only  think  of  it !  Over  two  hundred  and 
fifty  bones,  and  five  hundred  and  twenty-seven  muscles, 
besides  heart,  blood-vessels,  lungs,  liver,  digestive  appa- 
ratus, glands,  eyes,  ears,  etc.,  etc.,  throughout  the  entire 
system  of  organs  which  make  up  the  body  !  And  this 
only  the  beginning  !  Behold  that  complicated  net-work 
of  nerves,  and,  above  all,  that  brain  !  And  every  one  of 
these  organs  the  embodyment  and  utmost  condensation 
of  nutrition !  Mark,  also,  that  all  organs,  to  become 
strong,  must  be  EXERCISED.  Hence  that  great  amount  of 
muscular  motion  put  forth  by  the  child  before  birth.  And 

to  be  an  exception,  yet  mark,  the  latter  are  again  prepared  for  the  recep- 
tion of  another  life-germ  in  a  few  days  after  delivery,  while  nature 
requires  the  human  mother  to  wait  till  after  she  has  weaned  her  last, 
which,  in  case  nature  had  her  perfect  work,  would  probably  be  years***, 
to  that  the  multiplication  of  mac  is  slower  thai:  that  of  any  other  animal. 


ITS    AMOUNT.  21 

t  takes  far  more  vitality  to  sustain  this  exercise  than 
merely  to  form  the  organs.  In  short,  this  bearing  func- 
tion is  one  of  the  most  exhausting  in  nature.  And  the 
higher  the  grade  of  animal,  the  more  it  draws  on  the 
mother's  vitality,  because  the  more  power  is  required 
with  which  to  begin  life.  Hence  the  higher  the  animal, 
the  more  slowly  it  propagates.  Accordingly  the  human 
mother  is  ordained  by  nature  to  bear  slowly,  to  wait  for 
the  reception  of  the  germ  of  life  till  she  has  attained  the 
age  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  years,  and  to  wait  for  a 
second  till  she  has  weaned  the  first,  which,  at  the  short- 
est, cannot  be  much  less  than  two  years  ;  and  evidently 
the  order  of  nature  is  to  nurse  children  some  two  or 
three  years 443,  which  would  separate  births  some  three 
or  four  years,  because  this  process  is  so  exhausting  as  to 
require  all  this  time  to  recruit  so  as  to  prepare  for 
another. 

409.       THE    FEMALE    SECRETION 

Furnishes  an  additional  illustration  of  the  amount  of 
nutrition  required  by  the  embryo  ;  for  what  is  the  secre- 
tion but  the  life's  blood  of  the  mother — the  very  essence 
of  nutrition — secreted  by  the  very  organ  which  nour- 
ishes the  embryo,  and  imbibed  by  the  carrying  and 
nursing  process,  yet  discharged,  because  a  surplus,  when 
not  wanted  for  these  the  specific  purposes  of  its  creation  ? 
And  in  general,  the  greater  its  abundance  and  health, 
except  when  in  diseased  excess,  the  more  perfectly  the 
embryo  is  nourished  during  gestation  and  nursing.  This 
secretion  is 'only  an  excess  of  nutrition  over  and  above 
what  the  mother  requires  for  her  own  self,  so  that  the 
embryo  may  have  that  abundance  of  vitality  which  it 
must  have,  or  starve  to  death  before  it  comes  into  life. 

Still  another  proof  of  this    aw  is  the  HEARTINESS  of 


22  FOiTAL    NUTRITION. 

mothers  at  this  period,  provided  their  general  nealtli  is 
good.  Though  weakly  mothers  are  often  qualmish,  sick 
at  the  stomach,  languid,  and  troubled  with  all  sorts  of 
ailments,  yet,  mark,  this  is  NOT  THE  ORDER  OF  NATURE. 
On  the  contrary,  truly  healthy  women,  whose  female 
organs  are  healthy,  and  functions  vigorous,  have  BETTER 
health  at  this  period  than  at  any  other;  and  all  would 
have  if  they  should  bring  a  fair  degree  of  constitution 
and  health  to  the  fulfillment  of  these  relations. 

410.   THE  BEARING  PROCESS  INCREASES  APPETITE. 

This  statement  is  rested  on  the  experience  of  al. 
healthy  mothers.  Let  the  lower  classes  of  Irish,  Ger- 
man, Welch,  Arabian,  Indian,  and  other  hale,  hearty  fe- 
males settle  this  point  experimentally.  Let  even  any 
really  healthy  woman  say  whether  she  has  not  more  ap- 
petite and  better  digestion,  does  not  sleep  better,  and 
breathe  more  freely  at  these  times.  And  let  woman,  whc 
at  these  periods  is  so  weakly,  full  of  aches,  and  deadly 
sick  at  the  stomach,  remember  that  these  pains  are  not 
nature's  curse  stamped  upon  child-bearing,  but  the  pen- 
alties of  her  previous  violations  of  the  laws  of  health, 
aggravated  at  this  period  because  of  the  greater  draft  on 
her  vitality,  which  her  previous  debility  prevents  her 
from  supplying. 

And  why  should  not  all  the  vital  functions  naturally 
be  more  vigorous  at  this  period?  The  mother  has  to 
eat,  digest,  breathe,  exercise,  sleep,  etc.,  for  herself  as 
much  as  ever,  and  for  her  child  in  ADDITION.  Behold, 
then,  the  oeauty  of  nature's  provision  for  an  increase  of 
the  vital  functions  in  mothers  at  this  period  !  What  else 
couid  be  expected  ?  A  beautiful  adaptation  of  increased 
iupply  according  to  increased  demand. 


AMOUNT    REQUIRED.  23 

Nor  let  mothers  neglect  the  great  practical  truth  taught 
by  this  principle,  but  by  all  the  intellect,  all  the  maternal 
yearnings  of  their  nature,  avail  themselves  of  its  advan- 
tages. Let  them,  by  every  means  in  their  power, 
enhance  the  flow  of  vitality  in  themselves,  that  their  dear 
prospective  child,  instead  of  literally  starving  for  want 
of  life-power,  may  have  supplied  to  it  all  it  can  receive. 
Any  surplus  nature  will  evacuate  by  that  secretion  insti- 
tuted^ for  this  very  purpose.  Too  much  can  do  no  man- 
ner of  damage.  Too  little  weakens  and  stints  the  tender 
bud  in  its  first  start,  from  which  it  can  never  fully  re- 
cover. To  look  at  this  point  in  the  light  of  a  general  law. 

411.   ALL  VERY  YOUNG  ANIMALS  REQUIRE  EXTRA  CARE. 

If  you  want  good  cabbages,  or  onions,  or  beets,  or  corn, 
or  any  thing,  keep  it  well  weeded  WHILE  YOUNG.  All  prac- 
tical gardeners  are  my  witnesses  that  this  is  THE  SECRET 
of  good  gardening.  The  reason  is  this  :  If  the  young  plant 
is  choked  and  robbed  of  nourishment  in  the  start,  no 
after  attention  can  ever  make  it  any  more  than  barely 
tolerable  ;  whereas,  if  well  weeded  AT  FIRST,  it  acquires 
that  headway  which  carries  it  through  finely,  however 
much  it  may  be  subsequently  neglected. 

Good  practical  farmers  bestow  extra  care  and  food 
upon  their  CALVES  and  COLTS.  Young  stock,  if  neglected 
the  first  winter,  NEVER  RECOVER  FROM  THE  CONSEQUENT 
STINT,  but  if  well  fed  and  sheltered  the  first  winter, 
subsequent  neglect  is  not  minded.  A  practical  farmer 
related  to  me  the  following  anecdote : 

"I  had  a  mean  calf  in  the  fall,  sired  by  an  inferior 
male,  and  apparently  worthless.  I  took  extra  care  of  it 
during  the  wirrter,  and  in  the  spring  it  eclipsed  all  my 
neighbors'  calves  so  that  I  sad  it  for  more  than  double 


24  FCBTAL    NUTRITION. 

the  going  price."  And  he  certainly  lias  now  the  finest 
yearling  colt  I  ever  saw,  just  by  observing  this  rule 
He  also  took  extra  care  of  it  during  the  first  summer. 
This  law  holds  true  of  lambs,  chickens,  and  every  young 
thing,  and  the  younger  the  more  true.  And  this  princi- 
ple requires  not  merely  that  they  be  well  cared  for  the 
first  winter,  but  the  previous  summer.  Indeed,  the 
younger  they  are  the  better  they  require  to  be  fed  and 
sheltered,  because  the  weaker  they  are,  the  less*able 
to  withstand  cold,  hunger,  storm,  etc. 

Of  children  this  is  quite  as  true  as  of  animals.  Why 
this  shocking  mortality  among  children  under  two 
years  ?  This  principle  answers  :  Their  systems  have 
not  yet  acquired  sufficient  vital  power  to  resist  infan- 
tile ails,  yet,  if  they  can  be  got  through  the  third  year, 
their  systems  become  so  established  as  to  ward  off" 
disease.  And  the  younger  they  are,  the  less  they  can 
withstand  causes  of  disease.  Oh,  mothers,  if  I  could 
only  impress  this  one  truth  upon  you,  I  should  save 
many  a  darling  child  from  a  yawning  grave,  and  many 
a  bereaved  mother  from  a  broken  heart  ! 

But,  mark,  this  law  applies  with  redoubled  force  to 
children  BEFORE  BIRTH.  Better  half  starve  the  calf  and 
colt  the  last  part  of  its  first  year  than  the  first  part,  and 
better  stint  it  the  first  half  year  than  neglect  its  mothei 
before  its  birth.  The  earlier  this  starvation,  the  worse, 
and  far  more  detrimental  before  birth  than  after.  As 
adults  withstand  cold,  fatigue,  deprivation  of  food,  and 
all  other  hardships,  vastly  better  than  children,  and  hnlf- 
grown  children  better  than  young  ones,  so  even  infants 
are  injured  far  less  by  too  little  clothing,  food,  and  air. 
than  while  in  the  foetal  state.  Is  this  not  too  obviouslv 
REASONABLE  to  require  additional  proof?  Nor  do  any 


AMOUNT    REQUIRED.  25 

of  us  at  all  realize  HOW  important  is  a  full  supply  of 
vitality  to  the  young  vegetable,  animal,  child,  every 
thing. 

Prospective  mothers,  do  be  entreated  to  ponder  well 
this  law,  and  apply  it  to  -your  own  selves  while  carrying 
your  dear  ones.  You  are  compelled,  by  an  institution 
of  nature,  to  breathe  for  them,  eat  for  them,  exercise  for 
tnem.  every  thing  for  them  as  well  as  yourself.  All  the 
vitality  they  can  possibly  have,  they  must  obtun  from 
you.  Every  other  source  is  cut  off.  Suppose,  then, 
you  have  not  enough  for  them  and  yourself?  You  in- 
flict upon  them  all  the  horrors  of  semi-sxARVATioN  and 
SUFFOCATION,  and  of  protracted  deprivation  of  food  and 
breath.  Does  such  deprivation  after  birth  debilitate 
and  disease  them,  and  not  far  more  so  before  ?  THE 

YOUNGER  THEY  ARE  THE  MORE  FATAL  THE  CONSEQUENCES  ! 

Has  nature  taken  so  much  pains  to  provide  the  female 
with  this  extra  supply  of  nutrition,  a  part  of  which  is  eva- 
cuated in  her  monthly  discharges,  and  a  part  by  increas- 
ing digestion,  sleep,  etc.,  when  such  extra  supply  is  of  no 
special  consequence  ?  Does  nature  take  such  extra  pains 
to  do  what,  when  done,  is  of  little  account  ?  This  se- 
cretion, when. not  required  for  child-bearing  and  nursing, 
its  exceedingly  inconvenient,  as  every  woman  practically 
knows.  Would,  then,  nature  burden  her  thus  for  no- 
thing? Does  not  this  fact  show  how  IMPERIOUS  nature's 
requisition  for  this  extra  supply  at  this  period  ?  And  by 
as  much  as  this  demand  is  imperious,  BY  so  MUCH  is  ITS 
DEFICIENT  SUPPLY  FATAL  to  offspring  and  mother  ;  be- 
cause it  leaves  the  former  weakly,  small,  languid  in  all 
its  functions,  and  only  half  made — a  SLACK-BAKED  spe- 
cimen of  a  tried-to-be-but-could-not  specimen  of  hu- 
manity, exposed  to  be  blown  into  the  grave  by  the 
3 


26  NECESSITY    OF    NUTRITION. 

least  adverse  breeze,  having  a  name  to  live  whil-  it  is 
almost  dead,  and  at  the  same  time  leaves  its  mot'.er  so 
far  exhausted  as  to  expose  her  likewise  to  disease  and 
death.  Mark,  as  bearing  with  momentous  import  on 
this  point,  the  physiological  law  that 

:U!.    ''•-'. 

412.       WEAKNESS    INVITES    DISEASE. 

As  long  as  the  system  is  supplied  with  a  full  head  o. 
vitality,  that  vitality  keeps  disease  at  bay,  restores  pros- 
trate organs,  and  secures — is — health.  But  let  this 
font  of  health  run  low,  ami  it  leaves  weak  organs  doubly 
exposed.  Diseases,  which  a  full  supply  of  vitality  would 
eject  from  the  system,  or  at  least  bury  up,  a  sparse  sup- 
ply allows  to  gain  complete  ascendency,  and  master 
what  little  life-power  remains.  Vitality  is  the  city  senti- 
nel and  soldiery.  When  abundant,  it  stations  its  pro- 
tecting corps  all  around  and  upon  the  wall  of  life,  and 
fills  the  citadel  completely  with  guards  the  most  faithfu/ 
and  powerful,  so  that  the  least  approach  of  disease  o> 
every  kind  is  hailed  and  expelled.  Be  it  that  the  gatcr 
are  all  open — be  the  exposure  to  disease  what  it  may — 
this  fullness  of  vitality  is  both  watch-all  and  cure-all. 
But,  when  vitality  is  low,  the  weaker  organs  are  left  pe- 
culiarly exposed,  the  citadel  of  life  is  feebly  guarded, 
WHILE  ITS  GATES  ARE  WIDE  OPEN,  so  that  disease  finds 
ready  access,  sacks,  and  destroys  it.  This  point  is  im- 
mensely important.  How  is  it  that  some  men  retain 
their  health  half  a  century  of  habitual  drunkenness  ? 
Does  this  being  soaked  in  alcoholic  poison  do  no  injury  ? 
Aye,  but  their  full  supply  of  life-power  casts  out  disease 
as  fast  as  alcohol  introduces  it.  So  of  exposure  to  mias- 
mas, confinement  to  unhealthy  occupations,  etc.  And 
thin  «hows  why  what  'loes  a  given  person  m  percepti 


CVIL3    OF    ITS    DEFICIENCY,  27 

ble  harm  at  one  time,  at  another  prostrates  him  with 
sickness,  or  hurries  him  into  his  grave.  Before,  this 
life-power  fortified  him.  Now  its  absence  invites  dis- 
ease to  enter,  ravage,  and  destroy 

Prospective  mothers,  in  view  of  this  palpably  apparent 
law  of  health,  I  lay  the  solemn  unction  to  your  own 
souls.  Say,  have  you  not,  by  having  so  little  vitality  at 
this  period,  brought  forth  children  so  feeble  that  slight 
exposures  blew  out  the  flickering  rush-light  of  life  ?  Oh, 
if  mothers  only  knew  how  many  infanticides  they  had 
thus  committed,  instead  of  sending  missionaries  to  In- 
dia and  China  to  preach  the  wickedness  of  child-murder, 
they  would  preach  to  themselves  and  their  neighbors 
the  great  practical  truth  before  us!  MORE  INFANTICIDES 
ARE  COMMITTED  IN  OUR  ENLIGHTENED,  (?)  CHRISTIAN  (?) 
AMERICA,  THAN  IN  ALL  HEATHENDOM  !  MANY  READERS 

HAVE  ACTUALLY  PERPETRATED  THIS  HORRID  CRIME igHO- 

rantly,  of  course — yet,  did  this  save  your  child?  And 
is  ignorance  of  such  momentous  truth,  when  attended 
with  such  direful  consequences,  no  crime?  The  slow 
starvation  and  suffocation  of  your  own  darling  child, 
till  it  becomes  too  weak  to  live  ! — what  is  more  horrible  ? 
O  ignorantly  cruel,  wicked  mother  !  You  richly  deserve 
that  your  lacerated  soul  bleed  thus  at  every  pore.  You 

SHOULD  NOT  HAVE  KILLED  YOUR  CHILD.  SEE  T  }  iT  THAT 
YOU  MURDER  NO  MORE. 

413.       MRS.    G 's   MISCARRIAGE    AND    DEATH.       CAUSE. 

In  1844,  while  practicing  Phrenology  in  G.,  Mass., 
two  married  women  called  upon  me  for  phrenological 
examinations.  As  I  always  remark  also  upon  the  physi- 
ology, when  occasion  requires,  I  said  to  one  of  them 
whose  vital  apparatus  was  too  weak  to  support  even  her- 


88  NECESSITY    OF    NUTRITION. 

self,  "  AlK»w  me,  madam,  to  give  you  one  item  of  advice, 
to  you  all  important — namely,  never  to  become  a  moth- 
er ;  because  you  have  barely  sufficient  vitality  to  keep 
even  your  own  self  alive — much  less,  enough  to  give 
birth  to  a  living  child ;  and  this  extra  drain  would  al- 
most certainly  jeopardize  your  own  life."  The  next 
day  her  friend  called  to  state,  that  she  was  then  some 
three  months  advanced,  and  that  my  remark  made  her 
feel  most  awfully,  because  her  only  child,  born  four- 
teen years  before,  died  at  birth,  and  the  father  was  in- 
expressibly anxious  for  issue,  and  now  had  hope.  I 
replied,  that  if  I  had  been  aware  of  her  existing  situa- 
tion, I  should  certainly  never  have  made  the  remark, 
true  though  it  was,  because  it  was  calculated  to  alarm 
and  discourage  her,  which  was  especially  prejudicial ; 
yet,  that  I  should  be  glad  to  talk  with  her,  because  I 
thought  I  could  yet  give  her  that  advice  which,  rigidly 
followed,  would  save  herself  and  child.  They  accord- 
ingly cplled.  I  explained  to  her  fully  the  physiological 
law  involved,  yet  added,  that  if  she  would  do  all  she 
could  to  enhance  her  vitality,  and  husband  it  ALL,  she 
might  bear  a  living  child;  and  was  confirmed  in  this 
decision  by  the  fact  that  her  appetite  and  general  health 
had  IMPROVED  since  she  had  been  in  this  way.  I  told 
her  that  this  single  fact  held  out  the  star  of  promise, 
yet  warned  her,  that  she  must  pay  the  utmost  attention 
to  her  health  ;  must  lie  down  every  day  ;  must  not  do  a 
stroke  more  work  than  barely  to  get  what  exercise  she 
required ;  that  she  must  be  much  in  the  open  air — it 
was  then  June — and  eat  easily  digested  food  ;  masticate 
thoroughly,  etc. ;  that  she  must  have  no  care  of  the 
family,  as  such,  but  be  simply  an  uninterested  boarder, 
etc.  She  replied,  that  her  hisband  earned  their  living 


MRS.  a 29 

b)  day's  works,  and  was  just  getting  something  ahead 
for  a  home ;  that  she  had  been  much  expense  to  him  by 
sickness,  and  hated  to  saddle  him  with  servant's  hire, 
while  she  was  able  to  be  about  the  house  ;  that  she  could 
illy  afford  time,  even  to  lie  down,  during  the  day,  etc. 
I  answered,  emphatically,  "Madam,  THIS  is  A  CASE  OF 
LIFE  AND  DEATH,  to  your  child,  at  least,  and  probably  to 
you,  too.  You  MUST  DO  AS  I  SAY,  or  you  will  surely 
MISCARRY,  and  probably  die  yourself.  Take  your  choice. 
Would  not  your  husband  rather  hire  help,  and  have  a 
living  child,  than  have  no  heir  to  enjoy  his  home  and 
property  ?"  She  replied,  "  Yes,  but — "  and  stopped.  I 
followed,  "  Yes,  but  it  is  the  one  or  the  other.  Which, 
n  for  you  to  say  in  ACTION." 

Being  in  an  adjoining  town  the  next  November,  and 
feeling  a  deep  interest  in  her  case,  I  called  upon  her, 
and  found  her  in  a  small  kitchen,  full  of  the  smoke  of 
burnt  fat,  frying  dough-nuts.  "Good  woman,  what  did 
I  tell  you  ?"  I  exclaimed.  Her  unborn  child  was  still 
alive,  and  I  besought  her,  at  this  eleventh  hour,  to  fol- 
low my  advice.  My  next  news  from  her  was,  that  she 
had  been  delivered  of  a  still-born  child,  which  died 
three  days  before  its  birth ;  and  that  she  was  extremely 
feeble.  She  is  now  dead  ;  and  her  working  thus  at  this 
time,  was  just  as  much  bu\cide  as  if  she  had  died  of 
poison.  She  committed  CHILD-MURDER,  and  on  her  ONLY 
CHILD.  She  blighted  her  husband's  last  ecstatic  hopes, 
and  turned  his  holy  joys  into  an  agony  of  sorrow.  She 
broke  his  heart,  by  killing  his  dearest  wife,  as  well  as 
only  child.  And  all  because  too  parsimonious  to  hire 
help,  and  too  short-sighted  to  see  that  even  true  ECON- 
OMY, to  say  nothing  of  the  life  of  mother  or  child 
required  that  she  be  relieved  of  family  cares  and 
3* 


30  AN    ALLEGORY 

wearisome  drudgery,  just  for  the  balance  of  her  timo 
only. 

Mothers,  know  you  no  like  cases?  Have  you  not 
even  perpetrated  them  ?  Or  if  your  dear  child  did  not 
die  before  birth,  did  it  not  soon  after  ?  or,  at  farthest, 
barely  drag  out  a  precarious  existence  for  a  few  months, 
only  to  fall  a  victim  to  some  form  of  infantile  disease, 
because  you  did  not  endow  it  with  sufficient  life-power 
to  resist  even  trifling  disease  ?  Oh,  prospective  moth- 
ers, do  be  entreated  to  pause  here,  and  ponder  well  this 
momentous  truth — the  ABSOLUTE  necessity  that  you  fur- 
nish an  abundant  supply  of  the  life-principle  to  your 
precious  charge,  during  the  entire  period  of  its  car- 
riage— and  then  ask  yourself  whether  you  have  enough 
both  for  yourself  and  it.  If  any  doubt  remains — if  your 
own  vitality  runs  low — take  timely  warning  from  the 
following  allegory : 

A  traveler  started  alone  on  a  nine  months'  journey, 
and  took  with  him  barely  meal  enough  for  food,  though 
used  with  the  utmost  economy,  to  carry  him  through  ; 
nor  could  he  obtain  any  re-supply  on  the  road.  But, 
improvidently,  he  did  not  husband  his  sparce  supply 
of  meal,  but  wasted  much  without  baking  it,  carelessly 
let  fall  on  the  road  many  pieces  of  bread,  and.  to  crown 
all,  TOOK  ALONG  A  COMPANION,  whom  he  might  just  as 
well  have  left  behind,  and  fed  him  all  along  their  jour- 
ney. But  for  this  last  imprudent  act,  he  might,  after  all, 
have  had  food  enough  to  carry  him  through  ;  but  this 
told  the  fatal  story.  Their  food  failed  them.  He  starv- 
ed himself — he  starved  another  to  death  ;  first  by  wan- 
ton waste,  and  then  by  dividing  his  sparce  supply. 

Reader,  hast  thou  seen  no  kindred  instance  of  folly 
and  wickedness?  Know  you  no  mother,  herself  pog- 


EXHAUSTION.  31 

aessed  of  barely  suffici  -nt  vitality  to  live  along,  between 
hawk  and  buzzard,  load  herself  down  with  an  embryc 
child,  completely  exhaust  her  vital  powers,  fall  into  a 
rapid  decline,  and  fill  a  self-dug  grave,  whereas,  but  for 
such  child  she  might  have  lived — or  have  still  lived  if 
she  had  economically  husbanded  what  little  health  and 
vitality  she  had  ?  And  her  child,  rendered  weakly  and 
sickly  before  it  was  born,  by  its  mother's  debility,  if  it 
barely  lived  a  few  brief  days  or  months,  kept  mother, 
father — all  concerned — in  perpetual  fear  for  its  death, 
and,  finally,  yielded  up  its  feeble  hold  on  life  ? 

Another  phase  of  this  doleful  picture.  See  you  that 
sickly  mother,  fast  sinking  into  a  premature  grave,  per- 
haps of  consumption,  or  nervousness,  or  female  com- 
plaints, or  some  other  forms  of  disease,  who  was  well 
when  she  married,  and  till  she  had  her  first  child,  which 
was  smart  and  healthy?  But  this  shook  her  constitution 
to  its  centre.  She  became  pale,  emaciated,  debilitated, 
and  afflicted  with  female  complaint,  and  various  other 
ails.  Yet  they  only  crippled,  but  did  not  disable  her. 
She  still  worked,  though  in  pain ;  but  hardly  aware  that 
she  was  not  able  still  to  endure  as  formerly,  thinking 
that,  perhaps,  after  all,  it  was  only  laziness,  and  being 
very  desirous  of  saving  all  outgoes  for  extra  help,  and 
helping  her  husband  lay  up  something  for  the  future, 
worked  on,  as  hard  as  ever,  and  far  beyond  her  strength. 
And,  worst  of  all,  she  did  more  sewing,  and  more  wash- 
ing, and  more  scrubbing,  than  was  at  all  necessary, 
merely  to  have  her  house,  and  all  about  it,  look  just  so 
A'ery  nice,  and  clean,  and  orderly,  and  array  her  dear 
babe  in  fashionable,  highly  worked  frocks ;  whereas, 
plain  ones  woul  1  nave  answered  f very  purpose  except 
maternal  vanity,  even  better. 


32  REQUISITION    FOR    NOURISHMENT. 

Again  she  finds  herself  in  the  bearing  state ,  and  is 
much  more  sick  at  the  stomach,  n.ore  nervous,  and  full 
of  all  sorts  of  pregnant  ails,  than  before,  and  wonders 
why  in  the  world  she  suffers  so  dreadfully — is  so  dif- 
ferent from  what  she  was  before.  Her  husband  is,  per- 
haps, building,  or  carrying  on  some  enterprise  which 
requires  her  to  do  for  hired  men,  though  barely  able  to 
drag  one  foot  after  another.  In  perpetual  torture  she 
carries  that  child.  Having  barely  sufficient  vitality  to 
keep  the  wheels  of  her  own  life  from  stopping  short, 
she  divides  this  little  with  her  embryo  babe,  and  thus 
STARVES  BOTH  !  Her  system,  too  weak  to  resist  the  in- 
gress of  new  diseases,  and  even  to  keep  out  what  pre- 
vious weakness  had  introduced,  is  besieged  on  all  sides, 
and  gives  away — now  here,  then  there,  and  anon  yon- 
der— till  her  time  arrives  ;  and  a  most  dreadful  time  it 
is.  But  the  life-power,  though  sunk  to  the  lowest  point, 
here  rallies,  summons  every  energy,  and  taxes  every 
function  to  its  utmost,  and,  after  suffering  all  but  death, 
carries  her  through.  Yet  she  is  completely  exhausted; 
though  gradually  recovers,  after  a  long  lingering  on  the 
confines  of  death. 

But  her  child  is  small,  shriveled,  squailid,  and  ex- 
tremely feeble.  Though  it  has  almost  robbed  its  mother, 
yet  it  could  rake  and  scrape  barely  enough  of  the  mate- 
rials of  life  to  form  only  an  imperfect  organization,  and 
just  keep  the  fire  of  life  from  going  out. 

Added  to  all  this,  its  mother's  aggravated  and  com  • 
plicated  diseases  find  their  way  into  its  daily  food.  It 
drinks  in  poison  from  its  mother's  breast.  It  lives  on 
death  I  Griping  pains  and  infantile  disorders  cramp  ita 
stomach,  interrupt  its>sleep,  and  render  its  young  life, 
otherwise  so  quiet  and  happy  a  torture.  And,  to  cap 


DUTY    O?    HUSBANDS.  33 

ihe  climax,  officious  nurse,  or  meddlesome  aunt,  or  fussy 
granny,  determined  not  to  let  nature  have  even  the 
small  chance  of  restoring  it  left,  keeps  dosing  it,  night 
and  day,  with  this  tea,  and  that  drug — castor  oil,  of 
course,  included — till  its  feeble  powers  barely  suffice  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together.  Yet,  wonderful  the  powei 
of  nature,  it  still  lives  !  It  would  still  weather  the  cape 
of  death,  if  its  frail  bark  were  not  forced  upon  the  quick- 
sands by  over-nursing. 

Its  mother,  also,  lives — a  marvel  that  she  does — be- 
cause the  life-power  clings  with  desperation  to  her  yet 
young  organization.  COMPELLED  to  take  some  rest,  be- 
cause utterly  unable  to  work,  her  constitution  slowly 
recovers — the  drugging  doctor  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing— and  a  hundred  dollar  fee  must  be  paid  to  him 
for  interfering  with  nature,  and  another  hundred  for  in- 
cidentals ;  whereas,  a  moiety  of  it  paid  out  for  help,  so 
as  to  have  allowed  the  mother  time  to  rest,  and  kept 
her  up  while  carrying  her  child,  would  have  brought 
her  safely  through,  saved  her  constitution  from  the  ut 
most  verge  of  ruin,  and  given  her  darling  babe  a  fair 
hold  of  life  in  the  start,  so  that  it  would  have  grown 
finely,  been  intelligent,  and  withstood  the  current  of  in- 
fantile complaints.  But  no,  they  could  not  afford  to  be 
thus  penny  wise. 

414.       CASTIGATION    OF    WIFE-NEGLECTING    HUSBANDS. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  husband's  barn-yard.  There  is 
his  old  mare,  worth,  perhaps,  twenty  dollars,  turned  out 
to  do  absolutely  NOTHING,  yet  is  well  fed  every  day,  at 
a  greater  cost  than  would  suffice  to  hire  a  girl  to  do 
house  work.  She  was  treated  very  carefully  all  sum- 
oseu  uiii"r  HI  iigni  worK,  oecause  neavy  oraw- 


84  REdUlS  TIOV     OF    NUTRITION. 

ing  might  produce  a  sad  loss — that  of  a c— o — 1 — t! 

For  two  or  three  months  before  her  time,  the  lazy  beast 
is  never  harnessed,  because  her  pampered  excellency 
would  not  "  come  in"  QUITE  as  well  for  it.  And  the 
hired  men  are  charged  to  pay  the  horse-mother  extra 
attention,  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  human  mother  is 
made  a  pack-horse — a  perfect  family  drudge — notwith- 
standing her  sickness  in  ADDITION  to  her  pregnancy,  to 
these  very  hired  men !  And  the  human  mother  must 
work,  and  keep  working — slave,  and  keep  slaving — must 
toil  her  very  life  out  all  day,  and  then  worry  all  night, 
with  cross  or  sick  children,  up  to  the  last  hour  of  her 
time,  and  even  after  her  pains  have  come  upon  her — 
because  POSSIBLY  they  may,  after  all,  prove  to  be  false — 
and  it  is  so  necessary  for  her  to  work — so  MUCH  better 
that  she  work  an  hour  too  long,  than  leave  off  and  rest 
a  minute  before  compelled  to  do  so !  Out  upon  this 
extra  care  to  stop  up  the  spigot,  while  you  knock  out 
the  head — aye,  stave  the  whole  barrel  to  pieces !  Oh, 
blindness  without  excuse  !  Oh,  folly !  thickened  up 
with  unpardonable  guilt ! 

But  to  return  to  the  sick  mother  and  child  ;  after  a 
world  of  anxiety,  and  labor,  and  expense,  both  mother 
and  child  slowly  recover.  But  no  sooner  is  this  down- 
sick  woman  able,  by  straining  the  point,  to  sit  up  half 
an  hour,  than  she  must  take  her  SEWING.  Nature  must 
be  allowed  no  chance  to  rebuild  her  wrecked  consti- 
tution, but  just  as  fast  as  she  obtains  the  least  surplus 
vitility,  must  that  surplus  be  eked  out  in  work — and 
very  likely,  work  which  it  would  be  just  as  well  all 
around  if  left  undone.  But  as  she  must  still  keep  help, 
because  extremely  weak,  she  gets  some  rest  though 
her  infant  is  very  wearisome  her  remaining  child 


IK  SHANKS    BEPRO/ED.  35 

restless,  and  her  husband  too  completely  engrossed  in 
business  to  give  her  a.  single  sustaining  word  during 
the  day,  and  sleeps  too  soundly  at  night  to  relieve  her 
in  the  least  from  her  night-watchings.  Poor,  neglected, 
self-abused,  and  husband-abused  woman  !  And  is  this 
indeed  the  suitable  return  you  get  for  bearing  children  ? 
My  soul  bleeds  for  you.  I  would  fain  lay  violent  hands 
on  that  horse-caring,  but  wife-killing  dolt.  I  would 
shake  enough  paltry  business,  or  dollars,  or  stupidity 
out  of  his  head,  to  leave  room  for  one  warm  feeling — 
one  right  idea — about  wife  and  children.  But  no  ;  that 
pitiable  victim  of  his  neglect,  racked  all  through  with 
pains — a  deadly  weakness  paralyzing  every  limb  and 
function — more  dead  than  alive — and  above  all,  LONELY 
IN  MIND,  and  completely  broken  in  spirits — barely  living 
along — yet  every  night  or  two,  brute-like — aye,  worse 
than  any  brute,  he  must  assault  her,  commit  a  perfect  out- 
rage upon  her  person,  and  heap  on  new  fuel  to  those  fierce 
Tires  in  her  sexual  department,  lit  by  his  own  excessive 
msts,  which  are  burning  up  the  little  life  left  that  miser- 
able martyr  to  child-bearing.  Yet  still  she  lives.  Her 
original  hold  on  life  was  strong,  and  hence  she  is  so 
<ong  in  dying.  But  she  is  too  weak,  and  has  too  many 
and  aggravated  female  complaints,  to  again  receive  the 
germ  of  life. 

She  is,  moreover,  a  continual  bill  of  expense,  to  the 
serious  and  perpetual  annoyance  of  her  driving  hus- 
band, who  loved  her  once  and  sort  of  pities  her  now ; 
yet  is  becoming  a  little  weary  of  her,  AND  SHE  FEELS  IT. 
This  fills  her  bitter  cup  to  its  very  brim,  and  with  a|l 
dregs. 

But  that  poor,  dear  child,  racked  with  pain,  cries  till 
complete  exhaustion  compels  a  few  minutes'  respite. 


SO  EVILS    OF    OVER'i.lXINC 

only  to  give  it  strength  for  a  new  onset.  It  grows  no 
better.  Oppressed  with  its  mother's  diseases,  both 
hereditary  and  by  nursing,  and  so  weak  withal,  it 
barely  makes  out  to  live  till  warm  weather,  when 
teething  and  bowel  complaints,  or  some  other  infantile 
disease,  which  if  naturally  strong  it  would  have  mas- 
tered at  once,  bring  it  down,  and  the  doctor  is  called  in 
to  kill  it  off  SCIENTIFICALLY.  Yet  well  that  it  is  dead. 
For  the  first  time,  it  sleeps  now.  Peace  to  its  cold 
remains.  Better  dead,  else  it  would  have  lived.  Yet 
the  COLT  is  alive,  and  grows  finely. 

But,  oh,  that  agonized  mother  !  That  dear  babe, 
which  she  carried  for  nine  long  months  in  perpetual 
misery  ;  which  she  bore  in  agony  worse  than  death 
itself;  which  roused  her  from  so  many  half- waking 
sleeps,  when  so  completely  exhausted — rendered  doub 
ly  dear  to  her  by  its  very  sickness  from  birth — yes 
that  darling  little  pet  is  dead,  and  cold,  and  buried  ! 
And  she,  too,  wishes  she  lay  cold  in  death  by  its  side. 
Life  has  no  charms  left,  and  death  no  terrors.  But  she 
has  not  been  sufficiently  tormented.  Wait  a  little 
longer. 

Her  enterprising  husband  is,  however,  really  getting 
into  a  very  fine  business,  though  he  has  made  several 
bad  debts,  and  would  have  had  more  money  if  he  had 
done  less  business.  Yet,  his  wife  and  children  are 
nothing — unworthy  of  one  minute's  fond  regard,  or 
casual  word,  or  look  of  sympathy — though  he  did  shed 
one  tear  at  his  child's  funeral.  But  his  colt  grows 
finely,  and  since  money  is  the  only  thing  needful,  drive, 
drive ;  stew,  stew ;  hire,  hire ;  give  notes  and  pay 
notes,  puff,  blow,  crack,  break,  fail,  and  at  it  again.  I 
mistake;  his  wife  is  no  wholly  neglected,  but  is  made  a 


AND    NEGLECTING    BEARING    WIVES.  37 

rery  ooor  port  in  very  bad  storms,  till  at  length  she 
becomes  completely  used  up,  and  all  broken  down 
throughout  every  department  of  her  whole  nature. 
One  of  the  main  timbers  of  life  has  already  given  way. 
One  spoke  after  another  in  the  wheel  of  life  breaks,  the 
tire  loosens  and  runs  off:  it  strikes  a  stone — only  a 
small  one — goes  to  pieces,  and  sh«  slides  gradually  into 
a  welcome  grave — a  child-bearing  martyr  to  her  own 
suicidal  ignorance,  and  her  husband's  thoughtlessness, 
parsimony,  and  superior  business  talents.  But  that  colt 
is  becoming  a  fine  horse,  and  its  mother  receives  another 
furlough,  with  extra  feed,  because  she  promises  an- 
other. 

As  the  simpleton  who  thought  little  of  his  wife,  but 
every  thing  of  his  daughter,  comforted  himself  on  the 
death  of  his  wife  thus  :  "  What  though  my  wife  be 
dead,  my  daughter  Dorothy  can  now  have  her  clothes," 
so  these  stock-caring,  but  bereaved  husbands,  have  this 
great  consolation  left,  namely,  "  Though  my  wife  and 
child  be  dead,  yet  only  just  see  what  a  magnificent 
span  of  colts  I  have  raised  !"  Aye.  and  if  you  had  taken 
half  the  care  of  bearing  wife  that  you  took  of  breeding 
mare,  what  splendid  children  you  would  have  had,  and 
mother  alive  to  care  for  them  and  you  ! 

These  husbands  now  brush  up,  and  sally  forth  after 
another  victim,  and  are  beset  by  lots  of  caps,  all  eager 
to  follow  in  the  footsteps,  because  he  is  so  respectable, 
so  intelligent,  so  rich,  and  so  extra-excellent  a  husband  ! 
This  is  a  great  country,  and  full  of  great  fools,  and 
greater  sinners. 

Not  that  these  particularly  good  and  smart  farmers 
take  one  item  too  much  pains  with  either  colt  or  mare. 
A  fine  horse  is  worth  all  t\e  pains  required  to  rear  it ; 
4 


88  APPEAL    TO    HUSBANDS 

for  without  such  pains,  colt  and  mother  would  fare 
worse  than  child  and  mother.  He  cannot  have  a  good 
colt  withou*  all  this  pains,  and  has  sagacity  enough  to 
see  it.  Ye,  where  are  his  wits — where  his  conjugal 
love  and  parental  affection— that,  he  does  not  see  that  a 
similar  treatment  of  wife  is  indispensably  necessary  to 
secure  a"  fine  child  ?  No,  this  colt-care  is  all  just  as  it 
should  be — is  underrated,  rather  than  overdone — but  in 
the  name  even  of  common  humanity  and  common  sense, 
why  this  senseless,  this  cruel,  this  criminal  neglect  of 
wife  and  child  ? 

APPEAL    TO   HUSBANDS. 

Husbands  and  fathers,  do  stop  your  drive,  drive, 
hurry,  hurry,  tew,  tew,  long  enough  to  learn  your  duty 
to  your  wife  while  bearing  your  children.  See  you 
those  dear  little  birds  ?  They  have  built  themselves  a 
pretty  home,  and  the  female  is  filling  it  with  eggs. 
How  charming  those  little  attentions  he  lavishes  upon 
her  !  How  completely  devoted  and  exquisitely  tender  ! 
Thereby  he  renders  her  all  happiness  and  sweetness,  and 
this  stamps  the  impress  of  loveliness  upon  her  embryo 
eggs.  Now  comes  incubation.  How  near  her  he 
keeps  !  How  sweetly  he  warbles  in  surrounding 
branches  ;  thus  charming  away  her  tedious  hours, 
and  making  her  happy  by  notes  of  love  !  She  hungers, 
and  he  feeds  her.  His  entire  time,  "  from  early  morn 
to  dewy  eve,"  is  devoted  to  her.  Nor  storm,  nor  wind, 
nor  scorching  sun,  nor  love  of  flight — nothing  can 
allure  or  drive  him  from  her  side.  As  the  delightful 
period  approaches  for  the  birth  of  all  he  holds  dear  on 
earth,  oh,  how  his  glad  soul  leaps  for  joy  !  They 
emerge,  and  he  is  electrified  with  parental  esstacy 


THE    BRUTE    MALE.  3Jf 

And  now  how  ousily  and  delightfully  he  employs  him- 
self in  feeding  and  sustaining  both  exhausted  mate  and 
darling  little  ones  !  Is  he  too  busy  in  building,  or 
farming,  or  speculation,  to  notice  them  ?  Does  he  do 
ANY  THING  ELSE  ?  Every  moment — every  energy — are 
they  not  surrendered  WHOLLY  to  her  ?  Even  the 
coarse-grained  gander — can  fences,  can  hunger,  can 
any  thing  but  impossibilities,  keep  him  long  at  a  time 
from  the  side  of  his  dear  mate  ?  Approach  their  rude 
nest  at  your  peril.  And  when  his  dear  ones  begin  to 
peep  in  their  shells,  what  joy,  what  devotion  !  Go, 
thou  indifferent  husband,  and  take  warning  and  instruc- 
tions from  your  GANDER.  One  would  think  you  could 
hardly  tear  yourself  from  your  wife's  side  at  these  soul- 
ravishing  periods  ;  yet — alas  !  for  her  and  her  charge — 
how  seldom  are  you  there  !  Oh,  no  ;  you  must  attend 
to  your  pressing  BUSINESS.  Instead  of  taking  care  of 
her,  your  enslaved  wife  must  take  care  of  herself,  her 
precious  burden,  AND  HER  HOUSE,  FILLED  WITH  YOUR 
WORKMEN  BESIDES,  or  else  with  a  pack  of  rowdy  chil- 
dren, which  craze,  woi  ry,  and  torment  her  very  life  out 
of  her,  or  perhaps  of  BOTH. 

But  what  is  it  that  your  wife  now  requires  ?  RELIEF 
AND  RECREATION  FIRST.  She  begins  pregnancy  worn 
almost  out  by  day-drudgery  and  night-watching ;  yet 
you  put  your  mare  into  "  good  condition"  by  extra  rest 
und  feed  BEFORE  IMPREGNATION — for  the  utility  of  which 
see  "  Love  and  Parentage" — and  after  it,  she  must  do 
nothing  for  days  or  weeks,  because  this  is  the  only  way 
to  get  a  good  COLT  ;  yet  not  one  of  your  poor  wife's 
outward  burdens  are  taken  off,  though  her  inward  is 
thus  immensely  enhanced.  To  household  burdens  al- 
ready crushing,  without  rest,  -without  sympathy,  you 


40  APPEAL    TO    HU&BAND3 

load  her  with  this  most  exhausting  burden  of  all.  Hei 
former  burdens  were  all  she  could  possibly  endure. 
She  was  breaking  down  under  them  ;  yet  repined  not, 
because  she  bore  them  for  one  she  dearly  ioved,  and 
you  therefore  thought  she  felt  them  not.  But  you  force 
upon  her  this  second  burden,  without  relieving  her 
strained  energies  in  a  single  other  respect.  How  CAN 
you  be  so  thoughtless  ?  Your  gander  is  less  a  brute 
than  you,  and  would  teach  you,  but  you  are  too  stupid 
and  too  busy  to  learn.  He  is  a  better  conjugal  partner 
than  you  are,  and  more  true  to  the  masculine  office. 

415.       WHAT   HUSBANDS   SHOULD   DO   AT  THIS    ?EBTOD. 

"But  do  not  be  so  severe  on  me,  I  never  saw  this 
matter  in  this  light  before,"  you  apologetically  answer. 
Aye,  that's  it.  WHY  not  seen  it  in  this  light?  Is  cloud- 
less noon-day  sun  more  palpably  apparent  than  that  *his 
view  is  the  only  correct  one?  How  could  you  FAII  to 
see  it  ?  You  DID  NOT  DULY  LOVE  YOUR  WIFE,  OR  YOU 
WOULD  have  thus  seen  it. 

"  Yes,  but  I  get  every  thing  wanted  in  the  family-  - 
buy  her  nice  dresses,  rich  furniture,  etc." 

Aye,  but  you  are  INDIFFERENT  toward  her,  and  this 
cause  of  your  inattention  to  her  is  even  more  cruel  than 
the  neglect  itself. 

"  But  what  would  you  have  me  do  ?" 

Duly  LOVE  your  wife,  and  this  will  suggest  all  the 
rest.  If  you  cared  a  tithe  as  much  for  her  as  for  busi- 
ness, these  things  would  have  FORCED  themselves  upon 
your  attention  beforehand,  and  have  told  you  what  to 
do. 

Yet,  as  you  wish  to  learn,  I  will  be  more  specific. 
What  is  it  that  your  wife  requires  at  this  period  1  Just 


WHAT    THEY    SHOULD    DO.  41 

what  her  formal  child  requires,  and  that  is,  first,  VITALITY. 
What  it  requires,  and  about  all  it  requires  during  the 
first  few  months,  is,  ABUNDANCE  of  that  animal  energy 
derived  from  sleep,  food,  fresh  air,  etc.  Without  this, 
It  must  begin  the  race  of  life  under  every  disadvantage, 
and  always  lag  behind.  Vitality  is  the  sole  motive- 
power  of  every  organ  of  mind  and  body.  It  is  to  the 
organs  what  the  steam  or  water  is  to  the  machinery ; 
and  as  the  latter  moves  slowly  and  feebly,  or  briskly 
and  powerfully,  according  as  this  head  of  power  is  high 
or  low,  so  of  all  the  bodily  organs — so  especially  of  the 
brain.  The  first  great  condition  of  HEALTH  in  children 
is  this  maternal  vitality.  The  paramount  condition  of 
talents  in  them  is  this  same  vitality.  In  short,  maternal 
vitality  is  the  alpha  and  omega  required.  Furnish  this, 
though  you  deny  every  thing  else,  and  you  lay  a  deep, 
and  broad,  and  solid  foundation  for  life,  health,  talents, 
morals — every  thing;  but  refuse  this,  and  all  else  goes 
for  nought. 

BBe  it,  then,  your  paramount  concern,  to  ENHANCE  YOUR 
WIVES'  VITALITY.  True,  you  cannot  eat,  breathe,  and 
sleep  for  her,  BUT  YOU  CAN  RELIEVE  HER  FROM  FAMILY 
CARES,  and  thus  allow  her  time  for  that  rest  which  na- 
ture will  then  compel  her  to  take.  If  you  cannot 
breathe  for  her,  you  can,  at  least,  get  her  out  of  the 
stived-up  kitchen  into  the  fresh  air,  so  that  what  breath 
she  does  get  shall  do  her  some  good.  You  can  per- 
suade her  to  rise  early ;  can  provide  others  to  see  to 
restless  children  during  the  night,  so  that  her  sleep  shall 
not  be  interrupted.  And  when  she  awakens  refreshed, 
instead  of  sending  her  into  the  smoky  kitchen  to  get 
breakfast  for  you  and  all  hands,  you  can  proffer  her  your 
fond  arm — she  will  not  refuse  you — and  take  a  refresh- 
4* 


42  POOR    HUSBANDS. 

ing  promenade  before  breakfast,  and  an  exhilarating 
ride  after  it ;  and  then  insist  that,  whenever  she  feels 
the  least  appetite  for  rest  or  sleep,  she  shall  be  furnished 
with  every  help  to  it.  You  can  do  a  thousand  such 
little  things,  which  circumstances  and  a  high  order 
of  love  will  prompt,  and  thus  give  her  nature  time  and 
facilities  for  providing  an  increased  supply  of  vitality, 
adequate  to  her  own  and  child's  demand ;  so  that  her 
pregnancy,  instead  of  causing  such  deadly  sickness  and 
complete  prostration,  shall  really  revive  her  constitution, 
and  bring  her  to  her  accouchement  full  of  that  life-power 
which  alone  can  carry  her  through,  as  well  as  secure  a 
healthy  issue. 

"  But  I  am  a  poor  man ;  how  can  I  afford  the  time, 
the  extra  help,  and  the  horse-hire,  to  execute  these  ends, 
which  I  admit  to  be  desirable,  when  practicable  ?" 

You  can  afford  all  this  far  better  than  to  LOSE  YOUR 
WIFE,  or  have  her  or  her  child  sick.  Help  is  less  ex- 
pensive than  doctors.  Reference  is  now  had  to  this 
matter  in  a  PECUNIARY  point  of  view,  merely.  Granted 
that  you  are  poor,  THE  MORE  so  THE  BETTER  YOU  CAN 
AFFORD  TO  PURSUE  THIS  COURSE.  Are  you  not  too  poor 
to  render  wife  and  child  sick,  and  then  to  pay  doctor's 
bills,  nurse's  bills,  and  funeral  expenses  ?  If  you  were 
rich,  you  might  better  afford  to  have  your  wife  work  in 
the  kitchen ;  but  you  are  too  poor  to  make  her  sick  for 
the  time  being,  and  break  down  her  constitution  for  life, 
by  kitchen  drudgery  while  pregnant.  Relieve  her,  then, 
and  she  will  make  it  up,  ten-fold,  by  subsequent  ability 
to  labor.  And  is  not  this  carrying  your  child  enough, 
in  all  conscience,  for  her  to  do,  for  the  time  being?  Al- 
ready is  she  loaded  clear  down  to  the  water's  edge ; 
why  sink  her,  by  imposing  additional  freight  ? 


ADVICE    TO    BEARING    MOTHERS.  43 

By  one  other  most  effectual  means  you  can  relieve 
ner  labors;  by  requiring  LESS  TO  BE  DONE  IN  THE  FAMI- 
LY ;  by  putting  up  with  many  a  cold  dinner,  and  per- 
suading her  to  leave  every  thing  not  absolutely  neces- 
sary undone — to  let  household  matters  slide — and  do 
only  what  she  is  abundantly  able  to  do,  and  let  the  bal- 
ance go.  Most  of  your  wants  are  purely  artificial. 
"  Man  needs  but  little,"  and  at  this  period  should  want 
still  less;  and  then  should  mostly  help  himself,  allowing 
his  wife  to  do  barely  enough  for  exercise. 

416.       DIRECTIONS   TO   PREGNANT    MOTHERS. 

You  thus  perceive  the  imperious  necessity  of  a  full 
cupply  of  vitality,  that  your  forthcoming  child  may  be 
healthy,  strong  constitutioned,  full  of  life-power,  and 
possess  strength  of  brain  and  mind.  What  can  be  done 
to  secure  it  ? 

RIGIDLY  OBSERVE  THE  LAWS  OF  HEALTH.  You  SHOULD 
STUDY  PHYSIOLOGY.  No  woman  should  ever  approach 
the  hymenial  altar,  or  suffer  herself  to  be  put  into  a  way 
to  bear  a  child,  till  die  KNOWS  HOW  to  manage  herself 
during  this  eventful  period.  Oh,  if  fashion-lovirg  wo- 
men would  appropriate  to  physiological  and  other  stud- 
ies, and  preparations  for  bearing  children,  the  time  and 
money  they  now  squander  on  chasing  the  butterfly  of 
French  fashion,  how  incalculably  more  happy  would 
they  be,  and  how  infinitely  superior  the  children  they 
would  bear,  to  those  puny  Liliputians  they  now  bring 
into  the  world  !  The  accursedness  of  these  fashions 
God  only  knows.  Be  entreated,  O  prospective  mothers  ! 
to  sacrifice  to-day's  fashionable  glitter  uoon  the  altar  of 
your  prospective  child's  eternal  good.  You  need  not 
sacrifice  one  single  comfort,  but  multiply  them  all.  I 


14  DIRECTIONS    TO    BEARING    MOTHERS. 

ask  only  that  you  do  not  expend  in  perfectly  non-essen 
tials,  that  life-power  so  absolutely  indispensable  to  youi 
own  future  well-being  and  your  child's  forming  capaci 
ties. 

SLEEP     MUCH. 

The  restorative  power  of  sleep  you  know  too  well  to 
require  amplification  here.  Nothing  does  a  pregnant 
woman  require  more  imperiously,  or  more  in  quantity. 
How  clearly  does  nature  point  to  this  necessity.  How 
sternly  and  perpetually  does  she  urge  you  to  sleep,  and 
also  to  take  relaxing  lounges,  on  sofa  and  bed,  though 
not  tired  enough  to  sleep.  Giving  yourselves  abundant 
sleep  and  rest  at  this  period,  will  alone,  with  due  feeding 
and  breathing,  carry  you  safely  through  incredible  la- 
bors, even  during  pregnancy.  Bear  this  in  mind,  and 
every  day,  whoever  may  call,  however  pressing  your 
work,  or  however  well  you  may  feel,  take  an  hour's 
sleep  before  dinner,  and  another  hour's  lounge  after  it. 
Especially, 

LET   NOTHING    DISTURB    YOUR    NIGHl's    REST. 

Retire  early,  and  if  children  cry,  be  entreated  to  lodge 
them  in  some  room  where  they  will  not  disturb  your 
repose.  Oh,  I  wish  I  could  impress  upon  you  the  im- 
portance of  sleep,  and  the  evils  of  its  deprivation  ;  its 
ruinous  effects  on  you — on  vour  prospective  babe.  Do 
heed  and  practice. 

LET    YOUR    FOOD   BE    NUTRITIOUS,    \ET    EASY   OF    DIGESTION. 

As  you  have  to  eat  and  digest  for  your  child  as  well 
as  yourself,  you  especially  require  to  take  ever^  advan- 
tage in  aid  of  this  function.  Waste  none  of  your  stom- 
atic  energies,  either  on  innutritious  f  x>d,  or  on  clogging 


THEIR    DIET    AND    RESPIRATION.  45 

Digestion  by  overloading  your  stomach,  or  any  viola- 
tion of  the  dietetic  laws.  And  you  will  be  an  infinite 
gainer  if  you  study  these  laws,  merely  to  guide  you  in 
this  eventful  matter. 

Yet  the  great  difficulty  is,  not  to  eat  enough,  but  to 
DIGEST  what  you  eat ;  to  convert  it  into  good  chyle  for 
nourishing  yourself  and  unborn  infant.  But  this  is  not 
the  place  to  develop  the  laws  of  digestion,  or  give  full 
directions  concerning  it,  but  to  point  out  its  IMPORTANCE. 
The  author  has  written  another  work,  entitled  "  Physi- 
ology, Animal  and  Mental,"  the  express  object  of  which 
is,  to  give  those  PRACTICAL  directions  as  to  food,  bathing, 
recreation,  sleep,  and  the  other  conditions  of  health  re- 
quired by  all,  and  especially  by  pregnant  mothers. 
That  book  will  tell  you  in  detail  what  you  require  to  do. 

BREATHE    COPIOUSLY    OF    FRESH    AIR. 

Imperfect  ventilation,  is  bad  for  all,  and  doubly  bad 
<br  prospective  mothers.  They  must  breathe  for  two. 
Our  fronticepiece  shows  the  red  current,  freighted  with 
life,  flowing  from  mother  to  child,  and  returning  to  the 
mother,  darkened,  its  vitality  all  spent,  to  be  re-charged 
from  the  mother's  vivifying  lungs.  If  she  remains  most- 
ly within  doors,  and  in  heated  rooms,  where  the  vitality 
of  the  air  is  mainly  burnt  out,  and  what  there  is  is  highly 
rarefied,  so  as  doubly  to  reduce  its  life-imparting  oxy- 
gen, how  can  she  inhale  oxygen  enough,  even  for  her 
own  self,  much  less  for  her  child  too  ?  Hot,  stived-up 
rooms,  are  bad  for  all,  but  ruinous  for  bearing  mothers. 
BE  MUCH  OUT  OF  DOORS.  Air  your  bed-room,  and  open 
its  door  at  night.  OFF  WITH  ALL  CORSETS,  so  as  to  give 
your  lungs  full  play,  and  wear  perfectly  LOOSE  DRESSES. 
Than  compression  here,  nothing  can  be  worse. 


46  DIRECTIONS    TO    BEARING    MOTHERS. 


, 


But  many  women  are  so  ashamed  of  themselves,  tha 
they  girt  in  their  protruding  abdomen,  and  house  them 
selves  as  though  they  had  committed  some  disgraceful 
crime,  and  must  hide  it  under  stays  and  within  doors 
Shame  on  your  prudery.  For  what  were  you  created 
i  woman  as  such  ?  Simply  to  bear  children,  AND  FOR 
NOTHING  ELSE.  Then  why  be  ashamed  to  be  seen  while 
rulfilling  your  destiny — your  ONLY  destiny  as  a  woman? 
Do  you  not  know,  that  all  pure-minded  men  and -women 
regard  you  with  redoubled  interest  at  this  period,  and 
sympathize  with  you  ?  These  maternal  relations  mate- 
rially enhance  your  feminine  attractions  :  nor  do  any 
but  those  who  are  adulterers  at  heart,  look  upon  you 
with  any  other  feelings  than  that  of  increased  respect 
and  pure  regard.  They  instinctively  admire  in  you 
this  fulfillment  of  your  natural  destiny.  Hence  you 
should  take  pride  in  appearances,  rather  than  strive  to 
repress  them.  Or,  more  properly,  you  should  neither 
pad  nor  lace,  but  just  let  nature  have  her  perfect  work. 
A.nd  since  your  being  in  this  situation  enhances  your 
attractiveness,  and  also  the  happiness  of  others  on 
beholding  you,  why  not  appear  abroad  ALL  THE  MOBE  ? 
Why  not  glory  in  your  prospects,  instead  of  sneakingly 
trying  to  hide  them  under  a  bushel?  The  current  idea, 
that  women  must  not  appear  in  society  at  this  period,  is 
all  stuff.  Such  prospects  are  her  PRIDE,  not  her  shame : 
so  that  she  should  appear  in  street  and  drawing-room, 
church  and  lecture-room,  just  as  much  ther  as  ever,  if 
not  more.  Say,  common-sense  readers  of  both  sexos 
are  not  these  views  every  way  correct  ?  Then  il 
becomes  your  duty  to  draw  prospective  mothers  INTO 
society,  instead  of  frown  and  shame  them  back  within 
the  lonely,  sfifled  precincts  of  their  own  chamber. 


ADVifCE    TO    SEALING    MOTHERS.  47 

Another  reason  for  their  appearing  in  society,'  founded 
on  the  child's  mentality,  will  be  given  as  we  proceed. 

; 
REGULAR    EVACUATIONS    ARE    PARTICULARLY    IMPORTANT. 

Torpor  of  bowels,  produced  by  foetal  pressure  on  the 
rectum,  is  one  of  the  prospective  mother's  great  annoy- 
ances, and  still  greater  evils.  The  evils  of  constipa- 
tion, and  directions  for  securing  regularity  in  this  impor- 
tant function,  are  given  in  p'169.  The  special  attention 
of  mothers  is  invited  to  this  point.  Nor  should  they 
tail  to  secure  peristaltic  regularity  beforehand,  so  that, 
when  they  are  in  this  state,  this  function  may  be  kept 
regular  with  the  more  ease. 

Other  like  directions,  touching  scarcely  less  important 
functions — such  as  bathing,  keeping  up  the  tone  and 
action  of  the  skin,  etc. — are  scarcely  less  important ; 
yet  the  object  of  the  book  is  to  call  attention  to  the 
importance  of  these  subjects,  and  incite  mothers  both 
'u>  study  physiology  and  to  take  extra  care  of  their  own 
health  at  these  periods,  rather  than  to  go  into  detail 
of  the  modes  and  means  of  securing  this  vitality.  Pro- 
spective mothers,  do  be  entreated  to  give  this  whole 
subject,  of  the  abundant  supply  of  vitality  to  your  un- 
born child,  the  attention  it  deserves.  You  can  give 
your  child  only  vvhat  you  have,  and  if  your  fund  of 
life-power  is  weak  how  can  its  be  any  thing  else  ? 

417.       SIGNS    OF    MATERNAL    QUALIFICATIONS. 

Yet  this  law  has  one  exception.  As  some  trees 
grow  poorly  because  all  their  energy  runs  to  bearing, 
while  others  bear  little  but  grow  rapidly — as  some 
cows,  sheep,  etc.,  are  always  poor  while  pregnant,  yet 
bear  fat  and  fine  young — so  some  women  naturally  rob 


46  SIGNS    OF    A    GOOD    MOTHER. 

themselves  cf  vitality,  and  thereby,  though  weakly,  fur- 
nish a  good  supply  to  their  embryo  ;  that  is,  they  are 
good  bearers.  And  this  IB  an  excellent  quality,  if  not 
carried  to  extremes,  so  as  completely  to  exhaust  the 
mother,  and  thus  ruin  her  constitution. 

This  shows  why  some  women  will  be  very  feeble 
and  down  sick  during  their  entire  time,  so  that  you 
would  think  their  offspring  must  be  too  weakly  to  live  ; 
yet  it  proves  to  be  a  fine,  healthy  child.  It  also  ac- 
counts for  the  converse  fact,  that  some  prospective 
mothers,  though  remarkably  healthy,  bear  very  puny, 
email,  delicate  children.  In  the  former,  the  placenta  is 
so  vigorous  as  to  rob  the  mother  of  life  to  bestow  it 
upon  the  child  ;  while  in  the  latter,  its  feebleness  leaves 
the  mother  well  supplied,  yet  gives  but  little  to  off- 
spring. As  the  food  and  vitality  of  some  cows  go 
mainly  to  milk,  so  as  to  keep  them  always  poor,  while 
those  of  others  go  to  beef  and  fat ;  so  of  the  human 
female,  as  to  both  carriage  and  nursing.  Nor  is  it 
probably  difficult  to  tell  even  before  marriage,  and  from 
visible  signs,,  whether  a  given  woman  will,  in  this  sense, 
be  a  good  or  poor  bearer — whether  she  will  involunta- 
rily rob  herself  to  feed  her  child,  or  starve  the  latter 
while  she  revels  in  health  and  looks  fresh  and  rosy. 
There  are  undoubted  signs  by  which  this  matter  can  be 
predicated  beforehand,  with  perfect  ease  and  certainty. 
Why  not,  since  we  can  generally  determine  this  identi- 
cal point  in  cows,  or  that  which  involves  it ;  namely, 
whether  they  will  be  good  for  milk  ;  and  thus  of  all 
females  ?  And  why  will  not  those  same  signs  which 
enable  us  to  determine  the  one,  also  apply  equally  to 
the  other?  They  will,  only  that  we  have  not  yet 
learned  to  apply  them.  But  men  WILL  learn.  Whethei 


FEMALE    FASHIONS.  4& 

a  given  young  woman  will  make  a  good  or  a  poor 
child-bearer  and  nurser,  is  too  practically  important  not 
to  be  scanned  by  this  utilitarian  age.  And  let  females 
remember,  that  their  MATERNAL  qualifications,  as  such, 
or  to  use  a  plain  term,  because  it  exactly  expresses  the 
sense  intended — their  BREEDING  qualifications,  AS  SUCH — 
are  more  easily  and  more  generally  observable  than 
they  suppose.  And  though  cotton  breastworks  and 
circumvironing  bustles  may  mislead  green  ones,  by 
there  appearing  to  be  something  where  there  is  noth- 
ing, yet  the  real  state  of  your  maternal  department  is 
perfectly  apparent  to  the  first  scrutinizing  glance  of  the 
well-informed  physiologist. 

RATIONALE    OF    FEMALE    FASHIONS. 

I  see  I  shock  and  offend  many,  but  do  not  scorn  my 
book  till  you  have  read  a  little  further.  I  have  an 
object — and  that  object  is  your  own  and  your  chil- 
dren's highest  good — in  making  this  personal  allusion. 
And  first,  I  beg  to  ask,  if  cotton  padding  and  pelvic 
distenders  are  so  very  vulgar,  why,  in  the  name  of  all 
that  is  modest,  do  you  wear  them  ?  If  it  be  so  decidedly 
vulgar  to  name  them,  how  much  more  so  to  WEAR  them  ! 

Yet  it  is  not  surprising,  that  women  pad  and  bustle 
themselves  off  thus  ;  nor  that  young,  modest  girls  do 
this,  "  because  it  is  their  nature."  Because  the  en- 
tire attractiveness  of  the  female  as  a  female — all  that 
is  beautiful  and  lovely  in  woman  as  such — consists  in 
these  indices  of  her  being  a  good  child-bearer.  You 
spurn  this  idea,  but  wait  and  examine  it.  Indulge  me 
in  a  little  plain  talk ;  not  by  any  means  for  the  talk 
itself,  but  on  account  of  the  PHILOSOPHY,  and  the  moment- 
ous child-bearing  TRUTHS  taught  by  that  philosophy. 
5 


50  WHAT    CONSTITUTES     FEMAI  E    EXCELLENCE. 

:\  •>  ••-•i!»^«!  •    *5>rri$  n 

418.       THE    CONSTITUENT    ELEMENTS    OF    THE    FEMININE. 

In  what,  then,  does  female  beauty  consist  ?  In  femald 
perfection,  of  course.  But  what  constitutes  this  perfec- 
tion? A  fitness  to  fulfill  her  destiny;  for  in  this  con- 
sists all  beauty,  all  perfection.  Then  what  is  that  des- 
tiny ?  What  is  the  primary,  paramount  function  she 
was  created  to  subserve  ?  Not  what  subordinate  offi- 
ces she  can  attain,  and  good  effect,  but  what  is  the 
GREAT,  the  specific,  the  ONE  cardinal  end  she  was  or- 
dained to  fill?  Every  thing  in  nature  has  one  PARA- 
MOUNT function,  and  but  one.  The  heart  subserves  one 
PRIMARY  end,  the  lungs  another,  the  eyes,  ears,  and  other 
organs,  each  another.  And  thus  of  every  genera,  every 
species,  every  individual — every  part  of  every  thing  in 
nature. 

Then  what  is  woman's  one  great  destiny — her  primi- 
tive end — her  paramount  office — her  controlling  func- 
tion ?  What  the  rationale  of  her  being  ?  In  short,  why 
was  she  created  a  woman,  instead  of  any  thing  else?  I 
ask  not  now  why  she  was  created  a  human  being,  but 
why  she  was  created  a  human  FEMALE?  She  was  cre- 
ated a  female  simply  to  bear  OFFSPRING,  and  rendered 
a  HUMAN  female  solely  to  bear  human  beings.  MATER- 
NITY is  the  one  destiny  and  function  of  woman — that 
alone  for  which  she  was  created.  All  the  other  ends 
she  is  fitted  and  required  to  sul  serve,  are  secondary  to 
this.  All  the  female  beauties  and  perfections  centre 
here,  and  consist  in  perfection  as  a  child-bearer.  And 
she  is  the  most  beautiful  and  perfect  woman,  who  is 
fitted  by  nature  to  bear  the  best  children ;  while  those 
who  are  the  least  fitted  for  this  end,  are,  THEREFORE,  the 
most  homely. 


MATERNAL   SUPERIORITY.  51 

Of  course,  woman  will  raise  one  general  hue  and  cry 
against  this  doctrine.  She  will  affirm  that  this  detracts 
from  her  high  ends  and  exalted  capacities.  But  con- 
sider a  little.  Let  not  mere  prejudice  determine  so  im- 
portant a  question.  Let  your  natural  ADAPTATION  de- 
cide it.  This  umpire  is  final,  and  its  decision  too  palpa 
ble  to  be  mistaken. 

What  answer  do  woman's  anatomical  conformation  and 
physiological  constitution  give  to  this  question  ?  I  speak 
not  of  her  anatomy  as  a  human  being,  but  as  a  WOMAN 
PER  SE.  She  has  bones,  muscles,  limbs,  eyes,  and  other 
organs,  like  those  of  men ;  but  these  are  common  to 
both  sexes,  whereas  our  ordeal  has  exclusive  reference 
to  her  SEXUAL  anatomy  and  physiology.  That  this 
points  to  child-bearing  as  its  paramount  and  ONLY  func- 
tion and  destiny,  is  too  apparent  to  be  argued.  Who- 
ever disputes  it  has  no  philosophical  ideas  of  adaptation 
whatever.  This  granted,  does  it  point  to  any  thing  else  ? 
I  pause  for  a  reply.  What  one  organ  and  function  of 
the  female,  as  a  female,  has  primary  reference  to  any 
other  end  ? 

The  female  pelvis  is  constitutionally  larger,  relatively, 
than  that  of  man.  This  is  the  great  and  final  test,  of 
whether  a  given  skeleton  is  that  of  a  male  or  female 
This  point  is  illustrated  by  the  following  engraving,  illus- 
trative of  the  masculine  and  feminine  foim.  Man  ia 
broadest  at  the  shoulders,  from  which  central  point  he 
tapers  both  ways ;  while  woman  is  widest  at  the  hips, 
because  her  maternal  function  requires  the  concentration 
of  her  power  at  this  point. 

WHY  this  greater  pelvic  development  ?  Because  it 
contains  these  very  child-bearing  organs  ;  and  the  larger 
it  is,  the  larger  these  organs  ;  and  the  larger  and  more 


52 


MALE    AND    FEMALE    FORM. 


MASCULINE    FORM. 


FEMALE   FORM. 


ADAPTATION    OF    WOMAN.  53 

\igorous  they  are,  other  things  being  equal,  the  better 
children  will  she  bear,  and.  consequently,  the  more  per- 
fect the  woman,  as  a  woman.  The  female  anatomy 
then,  settles  the  question,  absolutely,  in  favor  of  our 
view;  because  the  only  distinctive  point  of  difference 
between  the  female  skeleton  and  that  of  the  male,  is 
that  which  adapts  it  to,  and  fits  it  for,  this  sole  end. 
What  can  be  more  conclusive  than  this  argument, 
drawn  from  her  anatomical  ADAPTATION  ? 

Turning  from  the  anatomy  of  her  bones  to  that  of  her 
fleshy  organs,  we  find  this  view  confirmed.  For  what 
other  end  were  these  organs  created,  but  to  receive,  and 
mature,  and  bring  forth,  the  germ  of  humanity — to  bear 
children?  Absolutely  nothing.  And  the  very  name, 
woman — womb-man — man  being  the  generic  term  for 
the  race,  and  womb  the  adjective,  or  descriptive  part 
of  her  name,  refer  to  this  same  child-bearing  appara- 
tus, and  TO  NOTHING  ELSE.  What  can  more  completely 
establish  any  point,  than  the  argument  drawn  from 
woman's  anatomical  organization,  establishes  our  doc- 
trine— obnoxious  though  it  may  be  to  many — adapts 
her  EXCLUSIVELY  to  child-bearing — that,  in  short,  the 
MATERNAL  function  is  the  only  specific  female  function 
and  destiny  ? 

If  it  be  urged  that  the  female  breasts  constitute  an 
exception,  the  answer  is  that  they  confirm  our  argument. 
For  what  were  they  created  ?  What  destiny  do  they 
subserve,  other  than  the  nourishment  of  the  infant? 
And  is  that  not  an  integral  part  of  the  child-bearing 
function  ?  We  use  this  term  child-bearing  in  the  gene- 
ral sense  of  bringing  UP,  as  well  as  bringing  forth,  child- 
ren, and  consequently  mean,  that  the  sole  destiny  of  the 
female,  as  such,  is  to  BEAR,  NURSE,  AND  EDUCATE,  till  thcv 
5* 


ADAPTATION  OF  LOVE. 

are  capable  of  caring  for  themselves — concentric  ends 
of  course,  included. 

"  But,"  it  is  here  objected,  "  woman  is  certainly  adapt- 
ed by  nature  to  become  a  WIFE,  quite  as  much  as  a 
mother."  Aye,  but  a  wife  solely  that  she  may  become 
a  mother.  The  whole  philosophy  of  love  and  matri- 
mony centres  in,  and  appertains  to,  propagation.  All 
these  delicate  attentions,  and  pure  and  exquisite  feelings 
of  oneness  and  love,  are  instituted  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  fitting  and  inclining  them  to  become  parents. 
Nature  brings  them  together  in  wedlock,  SOLELY  that 
they  may  unite  in  propagation.  Nature's  only  end  in 
instituting  love  is  propagation,  just  as  much  as  the  ulti- 
mate end  of  eating  is  nourishment.  Neither  love  nor 
marriage  have  any  other  natural  adaptation.  They  are 
not  primary  institutes  of  nature,  but  secondary  to  that 
one  end  of  both  the  masculine  and  the  feminine  crea- 
tion— namely,  the  continuance  of  the  race. 

Fair  reader,  pout  and  poh  at  this  institute  of  nature 
as  you  will,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  AND  YOU  KNOW  AND 
FEEL  IT.  It  accords  with  your  inner  consciousness,  as 
well  as  your  perception  of  adaptation.  And  you  may 
as  well  admit  this  point  first  as  last — may  as  well  know 
what  your  natural  destiny  is,  that  you  may  know  how, 
and  be  fitting  yourself,  to  fulfill  it.  I  have  not  rashly 
put  forth  this  principle.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  bur- 
dened my  mind  for  years,  and  is  one  of  only  two  points 
which  I  hardly  dared  to  bring  forward.  The  other  will 
be  forthcoming  in  duo  time — my  moral  courage  being 
ready  for  the  sacrifice,  as  soon  as  time  and  strength  will 
permit  me  to  present  it  effectually. 

Nor  have  I  brought  forth  this  view  of  woman's  desti- 
ny to  lower  her  in  the  scale,  but  to  elevate  her ;  for, 


*  IMPORTANCE    OF    MATERNITY.  55 

'••hough  limiting  her  to  mere  babe-bearing  and  nursing 
might,  at  first,  seem  to  confine  her  to  a  very  insignifi- 
cant destiny,  compared  with  that  of  man,  yet  he  does 
nothing  more  important,  if  equally  so.  The  magnitude 
of  this  destiny  it  is  not  possible  for  the  human  mind  to 
conceive.  What  causes,  wielded  by  man,  equally 
affect  human  happiness  and  destiny,  here  and  here- 
after? What  condition  equally  determines  the  fate  of 
individuals,  and  the  race?  How  far  the  mother,  in  her 
distinctive  capacity  as  mother,  controls  human  health 
and  power  of  body  and  brain,  has  just  been  seen.  How 
far  she  likewise  determines,  by  the  same  means,  human 
virtue  and  vice,  talents  and  imbecility,  moral  propensi- 
ties and  animal  propensities,  will  be  seen  hereafter. 
What  one  function,  throughout  universal  nature,  is  as 
important  as  the  maternal — the  seed-bearing,  animal- 
bearing,  and  child-bearing?  What  other  does  nature 
take  such  extra  pains  to  secure  ?  To  what  other  does 
the  natural  destiny  of  every  vegetable,  tree,  animal,  and 
human  being,  point  with  equal  force,  as  the  PARAMOUNT 
function  of  herb,  brute,  and  man  ?  What  if  there  were 
no  mothers !  What  other  calamity  could  equal  this  ? 
Our  RACE  cut  short,  and  all  the  capacities  of  every  one 
of  its  prospective  myriads,  throughout  all  coming  time 
and  eternity,  of  enjoying  and  accomplishing,  covered 
with  the  mantle  of  oblivion  ! 

I  said  no  calamity  could  equal  this.  I  except  one  ; 
the  destruction  of  all  the  males  ;  of  the  horrors  of 
which,  the  women  of  Benjamin,  when  their  men  were 
nearly  all  slain  in  battle,  give  a  faint  idea.  I  would  not 
put  the  feminine  function  above  the  masculine,  or  wo- 
man and  her  destiny  above  man  and  his,  yet  I  would 
put  her  and  her  natural  destiny  at  least  on  a  PAR  ••vith  his. 


56  WHO    13    THE    MOST    PERFECT    WOMAN  ? 

Is  this  degrading  her  ?  I  tell  you,  women,  you  infinitely 
underrate  the  maternal  function — its  power  over  human 
weal — its  importance  in  the  scale  of  being — and  there- 
fore when  I  circumscribe  you  to  this  destiny,  you  wrong- 
fully accuse  me  of  lowering  you.  If  this  function  were 
a  trifle,  and  your  only  destiny,  then  indeed  might  you 
properly  complain  ;  but  not  all  the  encomiums  ever 
lavished  upon  woman  at  all  compare  with  the  exalted 
character  implied  in  this  her  maternal  destiny.  In  the 
language  of  our  motto,  "  She  is  queen  on  earth  who 
produces  the  highest  order  of  children."  Voting,  legis- 
lating, public  speaking,  swaying  the  destinies  of  nations, 
wearing  crowns  and  diadems — all  are  trifles  compared 
with  bringing  forth  and  bringing  up  superior  children. 
Was  not  Washington's  MOTHER  quite  equal  to  Washing- 
ton himself  ?  Could  we  have  had  him  without  her  ?  Do 
the  world  owe  him  a  greater  debt  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving than  her  ?  and  him,  BECAUSE  of  her  ?  Then 
why  accuse  me  of  detracting  from  your  importance, 
relative  or  absolute,  by  limiting  you  to  the  maternal 
destiny  ? 

Nor  do  I  put  forth  this  definition  of  woman  to  expose 
her  to  ridicule.  No  ;  I  worship  the  true  woman  in 
general,  and  the  maternal  function  in  particular,  too 
devoutly  to  make  light  of  either.  I  set  too  high  a  price 
on  woman's  delicate  susceptibilities,  to  wound  them, 
except  to  benefit  her.  I  also  love  her  too  well  not  to 
tell  her  the  truth,  and  the  WHOLE  truth,  as  a  means  of 
perfecting  her.  Man  is  the  one  to  tell  woman  her 
faults,  and  how  to  perfect  herself,  and  woman  to  tell 
man  his.  The  order  of  nature  is  for  man  to  mould 
woman  into  the  image  he  loves,  and  for  woman  to 
mould  man.  LCVE  TO  THE  FEMFN  NE  dictates  every 


SHE    WHO    PRODUCES    THE    BEST    CHILDREN.  57 

word  of  this  book.  And  the  paramount  labor  of  my 
life — my  one  "heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God" — • 
centres  in  woman's  improvement.  This  is  the  grand 
focus  of  all  my  lectures — all  my  writings — all  my  life. 
But  to  obviate  her  faults,  and  improve  her  virtues,  I 
must  teach  her  her  NATURE,  and  this  is  precisely  what 
I  am  now  attempting.  I  would  disclose  the  true  phi- 
losophical necessity  of  the  feminine,  the  rationale  of 
woman,  the  female  ADAPTATION,  and  therefore  sphere. 
I  would  show  her  in  the  light  of  her  philosophical 
adaptation,  that  her  one  specific  function  is  to  bear 
children  ;  that  by  perfecting  this  one  constituent  ele- 
ment of  her  nature,  she  may  thereby  and  therein  per- 
fect the  quintessence  of  her  inmost  self.  Till  she 
fully  understands  her  natural  use,  how  can  she  fit 
herself  for  that  use  ?  Nor  can  she  possibly  improve 
her  maternal  capabilities  without  therein  proportionably 
enhancing  every  female  charm,  and  heightening  every 
female  virtue ;  for  in  this  one  point  centre  all  her  at- 
tractions— all  her  perfections.  This  is  the  mainspring 
of  her  nature,  which  keeps  all  her  subordinate  powers 
in  harmonious  action.  It  impaired,  she  fades  ;  it  de- 
stroyed, she  dies  ;  it  improved,  she  shines  forth  in  new 
splendors.  MATERNITY — this  is  her  holy  of  holies — • 
this  her  decalogue.  Then  what  good  can  I  do  her  at 
all  to  compare  with  enforcing  this  very  point  under 
discussion,  that  CHILD-BEARING,  nursing,  feeding,  training 
— education,  and  accompanying  ends  included — is  her 
specific  and  only  natural  use  ?  that  MATERNAL  excel- 
lence is  the  one  embodiment  of  female  charms  and 
perfections  ?  And  what  truth  can  she  learn  of  equal 
practical  moment  to  herself— -to  the  world  ?  Be  not 
then  offended :  nor  will  any  but  squeamish  prudes, 


58  FASHIONABLE  FEMALES. 

whose  only  glory  is  their  shame,  and  whose  sole  excel- 
lencies  are  faults.  No  true  woman  but  will  see  the 
intellectual  force  of  this  philosophy,  and  feel  the  in- 
ternal consciousness  of  its  truth.  "Am  I  then  your 
enemy,  because  I  tell  you  the  TRUTH  ?"  Sensible  wo- 
men will  prize  me  the  higher,  and  help  me  the  more. 
As  to  those  sounding  brasses  and  tinkling  symbols — 
who  are  only  what  the  silk-worm,  milliner,  and  dress- 
maker has  made  them,  polished  off  by  boarding-school 
glitter — why,  it  matters  as  little  what  they  !ike  and  say 
as  what  the  fluttering  insect  likes  and  does.  They  are 
perfect  inanities.  They  have  the  outward  form  of 
women,  but  are  too  deficient  in  feminine  soul  or  char- 
acter to  weigh  a  feather  in  the  scale.  They  are  mere 
motes  on  the  sun-dial  of  time,  and  tolerated  by  nature 
only  because  their  room  is  not  now  wanted.  Better 
them  than  nothing,  though  not  much  ;  but  as  fast  as 
true  women  require  their  places,  will  they  vanish  like 
the  morning  cloud  and  the  early  dew.  Let  them  pout 
and  turn  up  their  ninny  noses,  or  laugh,  or  praise,  will 
any  thing  they  can  say  or  do  affect  ME,  or  interrupt 
TRUTH  ?  Flutter  on,  ye  apologies  for  your  sex  !  Fash- 
ionable THINGS — what  are  you  to  the  mountain  torrent, 
the  ocean  wave,  the  fierce  winds  ?  Yet  is  any  thing  I 
have  said  CALCULATED  to  offend  any  one  of  correct  and 
enlarged  views?  But  whomsoever  nature's  stern  truth, 
delivered  in  her  oracles  of  adaptation,  offends,  let  them 
be  offended. 

419.       FEMALE    BEAUTY IN    WHAT    DOES    IT    CONSIST  ? 

On  this  point,  many  men  have  many  minds.  Some 
fancy  small,  others  large  women  ;  some  tall,  others 
short  j  some  plump,  others  spare  ;  some  one  color  of 


CONSTITUENTS  OF  FEMALR  BEAUTY.         59 

eyes  and  hair  others  other  colors  ;  and  so  on  to  the 
whole  end  of  tastes,  for  most  of  which  there  is  indeed 
no  accounting.  "How  could  he  ever  have  fancied  hei, 
for  I  could  not  ?"  says  one  ;  and  the  latter  thinks  the 
same  of  the  tastes  of  the  former.  Yet  is  there  no  fixed 
standard  of  female  beauty  ?  Thei3  is,  and  our  principle 
develops  it.  SHE  is  MOST  BEAUTIFUL  WHO  is  CAPACI- 
TATED TO  BEAR  THE  BEST  CHILDREN.  All  in  Woman  3S 

such,  which  ever  does  or  ever  can  excite  the  normal 
admiration  or  love  of  man,  is  INDICES  OF  MATERNITY. 

But,  you  ask,  what  have  ruby  lips,  a  sweet  mouth, 
fine  teeth,  a  sweet  breath,  flowing  tresses,  expressive 
eyes,  alabaster  skin,  finely-moulded  limbs,  an  enchanting 
form,  and  this  whole  round  of  feminine  charms  to  do 
with  their  making  fine  mothers  ? 

Much  every  way.  No  woman  can  bear  an  exqui- 
sitely-organized child,  without  being  exquisitely  organ- 
ized herself,  in  accordance  with  that  great  hereditary 
law,  that  like  begets  like  ;  and  all  these  are  but  so 
many  signs  of  such  exquisiteness.  Such  women  are 
fine-grained  and  susceptible,  and  will  bear  highly-or- 
ganized children.  Does  not  beauty  in  a  child  enhance 
its  excellence,  and  does  not  beauty  in  the  mother  pro- 
mote beauty  in  her  offspring  ?  Tell  me  not,  then,  that 
these — that  any  other  elements  of  female  beauty — bear 
no  necessary  reference  to  the  female  function. 

That  men,  in  general,  admire  a  full  development  of 
the  pelvis  in  woman,  is  too  apparent  to  require  a 
moment's  argumentation.  WHY  ?  Solely  because  it 
indicates  a  large  female  apparatus,  which,  other  things 
being  equal,  of  course  contributes  materially  to  child- 
bearing.  It  surely  contributes  to  the  NOURISHMENT  of 
the  embryo,  the  importance  of  which  has  just  been 


60  THE    PHILOSOPHY 

shown  to  be  paramount  41S.  A  large  pelvis  indicates 
capacity  to  carry  a  large  child  ;  and  good  size  in  chil- 
dren and  of  course  adults,  is  certainly  a  great  deside- 
ratum. It  also  indicates  a  large  placenta,  which,  othei 
conditions  being  the  same,  will  of  course  secrete  pro- 
portionably  more  blood  from  the  mother,  and  impart 
more  vitality,  and  more  of  all  the  conditions  and  mate- 
rials of  fetal  formation  and  power.  And  this  has  just 
been  shown  to  be  a  PARAMOUNT  requisite  of  superiority, 
mental  and  physical,  in  the  prospective  child.  And 
this  is  THE  reason,  and  the  only  reason,  why  a  large 
pelvis  is  an  element  of  female  beauty. 

It  also  of  course  facilitates  parturition,  another  of  the 
milernal  functions. 

420.   PHILOSOPHY  OF  BUSTLES,  CORSETS,  EXTRA  SKIRTS,  ETC. 

This  law  that  man  constitutionally  admires  fullness 
of  pelvis,  because  it  promotes  this  great  function  of  the 
female,  gives  Ihe  only  true  philosophy — the  real  ration 
ale — of  bustles,  corsets,  extra  skirts,  etc. 

"  These  things  have  their  philosophy  ?"  it  is  inquired. 
"A  RATIONALE  for  all  these  fashionable  accoutrements?" 
Yes,  verily.  In  all  her  extravaganzas,  fashion  is  per- 
fectly philosophical,  and  that  philosophy  is  based  in  this 
very  rationale  of  female  beauty  we  are  developing. 
And  I  call  up  philosophers,  and  fashionables  of  both 
sexes,  as  witnesses  of  the  '  fixed  fact,"  that  the  female 
fashions,  in  all  their  variations  and  mutations,  PUFF  OUT 

AND    ADORN   THE   PELVIC   REGION.       The    phlloSOph  V  of  the 

hoops  of  Queen  Anne's  time,  was  to  keep  the  bottoms 
of  the  dresses  flaring,  because  pregnancy  does  the 
same.  Thi?  fashion  was  attractive,  because  it  pro- 
moted whaf  maternity  promotes ;  that  is,  it  filled  out 


OF    FASHIONABLE    FEMALE    ATTIRE.  61 

the  skirts.  This  attractiveness  was  what  rendered  .t 
fashionable. 

And  what  is  the  philosophy  of  tight  lacing  ?  for  this 
most  accursed  of  all  fashions,  which  has  slain  more 
women  in  a  score  of  years  than  the  sword  has  men  in 
a  century — stifled  more  children  than  the  Ganges — has 
its  rationale,  and  thai  is  this  :  by  rendering  the  waist 
small,  it  increases  the  apparent  size  of  the  pelvic  devel- 
opment by  CONTRAST.  Mark  the  fact,  that  this  lacing 
has  always  extended  down  just  to  the' very  point  which 
the  early  stage  of  child-bearing  distends. 

The  bodice  waist,  too,  in  all  its  infinitesimal  forms, 
has  its  philosophy  in  this  same  law  of  female  beauty ; 
namely,  it  ADORNS,  and  at  the  same  time  fills  out  the 
pelvic  region.  In  other  words,  it  enhances  a  woman's 
apparent  beauty,  because  it  makes  that  part  seem  large 
and  fair,  which  when  large  and  full  indicates  an  ex- 
cellent child-bearer.  Of  course  our  fashion-following 
females,  ever  so  make-believe  modest,  never  think  of 
this,  and  will  frown  daggers  on  me  for  this  unpardon- 
able insinuation  against  their  delicacy.  Being  thus 
broadly  accused  of  thus  swelling  out  and  setting  off* 
their  pelvic  region,  so  as  to  make  believe  they  are  all 
prepared  for  receiving  and  developing  the  germ  of 
life,  will  torture  their  sorest  corn  beyond  endurance. 
But  it  is  true.  Let  it.  Yet  very  few  except  the  Pa- 
risian fashion-makers  know  this.  In  that  city,  no  way 
noted  for  female  modesty,  do  all  these  fashions  originate; 
the  following  of  which  makes,  and  the  neglect  of  which 
breaks,  our  women.  Why,  in  the  name  of  all  that 
is  sensible,  must  shameless  PARIS — must  the  Court  of 
the  TUILLERIES,  the  most  openly  wanton  in  the  civilized 
world — alone  give  birth  to  the  fashions  of  the  civic 
6 


62  PHILOSOPHY    OF    THE    BUSTLE. 

world?.  BECAUSE  IT  is  thus  unblushing.  The  entire- 
study  there,  is  to  present  woman  in  her  most  volup- 
tuous, because  this  is  her  most  attractive  light ;  and  all 
the  ton — all  the  pride  of  civic  female  life — is  to  dress 
here  as  female  voluptuaries  in  Paris  dress  !  Monstrous, 
yet  true  !  Blush,  oh,  American  mother  and  daughter 
yet  own  the  corn,  till  you  pluck  it  out  I 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    THE    BUSTLE. 


Completely  does  this  law  explain  the  philosophy  of 
the  bustle.  Maternity  enlarges  the  pelvis,  fills  out 
around  the  hips,  and  throws  the  lower  part  of  the 
spine  out  backward,  while  it  causes  its  middle  portion 
to  bend  inward — the  very  shape  produced  by  child- 
bearing.  Now  the  entire  paraphernalia  of  bustling, 
extra  skirts,  sacking,  and  all  that,  is  to  imitate,  as 
nearly  as  may  be,  the  form  of  a  woman  while  carrying 
a  child  ;  and  the  entire  philosophy  of  this  hip-dressing, 
is  to  render  the  wearer  INTERESTING,  by  making  her  ap- 
pear as  if  actually  in  an  "  interesting  situation."  This 
is  what  gives  to  this  apparent  abdominal  enlargement 
all  its  beauty.  Woman  knows  by  instinct  that  man 
loves  to  view  a  fullness  of  this  region — and  he  does  so, 
because  he  instinctively  admires  whatever  resembles  or 
promotes  child-bearing — and,  therefore,  puffs  out  these 
parts  by  cotton,  bran,  hemp  skirts,  and  surplus  petticoats 
by  the  half-dozen,  simply  to  excite  this  male  passion. 

"  Shame  on  that  vulgar  fellow  who  writes  thus,"  says 
many  a  blushing,  squeamish  miss.  Then  double  shame 
on  women  who  DRESS  thus.  Is  it,  indeed,  so  very  vulgar 
to  allude  to  this  matter  ?  Then  is  it  not  a  perfect  out- 
rage on  every  principle  of  female  modesty  thus  to  MAKE 
BELIEVE  in  a  certain  way  so  as  to  be  admirec  by  men  T 


DEMANDED    BY    t.  BERTINE3.  63 

I  know  this  will  cut  to  the  very  quick.  I  mean  it 
•shall.  Not  that  I  love  to  torture  woman's  fine  sensibili- 
ties, but  that  I  would  probe  this  gangrene  of  female 
folly  to  its  core,  and  lay  it  open  to  public  inspection: 
nor  that  I  would  lower  woman  in  mnn's  estimation  by 
exposing  her  weaknesses;  but  tha  by  pointing  out 
these  faults  I  may  obviate  them,  and  thereby  infinitely 
ENHANCE  her  in  his  regard.  Since  she  will  make  her- 
self such  a  laughing-stock,  let  me  turn  it  to  her  practical 
advantage. 

I  know  this  philosophy  of  the  bustle,  and  its  substi- 
tutes, will  be  denied  by  nearly  all  females,  and  indig- 
nantly spurned  by  many  even  of  those  who  are  deserv- 
edly esteemed  for  their  fine  sense  and  taste  ;  but  their 
pouting  does  not  alter  the  FACTS.  Besides,  the  burden 
of  proof  is  thrown  on  them  by  this  self-evident  rationale 
of  the  bustle;  and  there  it  must  rest  till  they  remove  it, 
by  giving  some  other  more  satisfactory  explanation  of 
it.  That  men  love  large  pelvic  realities,  and  if  they 
are  wanting,  APPEARANCES  of  fullness  of  the  female  ab- 
domen, is  not  to  be  questioned,  nor  that  he  loves  them 
because  they  indicate  child-bearing  capabilities.  Now, 
till  she  can  show  some  other  more  PLAUSIBLE  motive  for 
dressing  thus,  we  are  compelled  to  adopt  this  ;  and  we 
are  confirmed  in  it  by  the  fact,  that  she  is  so  intent  on 
adapting  herself  to  his  tastes — to  dress  as  he  likes  to 
see  her  dress. 

But  mark :  it  is  not  the  most  virtuous  of  men — the 
most  pure-minded  and  elevated — who  thus  extol  these 
artificial  forms,  but  those  fashionable  bucks  who  are 
known  to  be  no  better  than  they  ought  to  be.  For  her 
to  so  far  forget  true  modesty  and  propriety,  and  do 
ihus  unblushingly  wl  at  sho  :ld  crimson  her  face  with 


64  ITS    INJURY    OF    THE    FEMALE    ORGANS. 

the  deepest  shame,  to  please  RAKES — ah,  that  is  the  rid 
die — woman,  can  you  solve  it  ? 

"  But  why,  by  probing  so  exceedingly  tender  a  point 
so  aggravate  woman's  keen  sensibilities  as  to  make  hei 
dis.ike  you,  and  break  your  influence  over  her  ?" 

Because  it  involves  this  mighty  moral,  that  by  dressing 
thus,  woman  is  blasting  herself,  by  weakening  her  female 
organs,,  in  the  most  effectual  manner  possible.  Nothing 
could  possibly  make  such  perfect  havoc  of  this  specific 
female  function — child-bearing — as  the  way  she  dresses 
her  abdominal  region.  She  hangs  all  this  extra-clothing 
upon  her  hips  and  bowels,  and  this  of  necessity  PRESSES 
DOWN  her  female  organs,  gradually  DISPLACES  and  DIS- 
ORDERS them,  and  thus  weakens  and  diseases  that  speci- 
fic function,  the  perfection  of  which  constitutes  female 
perfection,  and  the  impairment  of  which  blights  the  very 
essence  of  the  female  nature,  and  with  it  every  female 
charm  and  function.  But  for  this  mighty  moral — if 
dressing  thus  were  only  a  piece  of  foolery — if  it  did  not 
stab  her  beauty,  her  utility,  her  inner  self,  in  the  most 
vital  part  possible — I  should  have  held  my  peace.  But 
for  years  has  this  momentous  truth  been  struggling  for 
deliverance.  Thank  heaven,  I  have  now  done  rny  duty. 
I  shall  thereby  stop  a  few  women  from  loading  the 
pelvis  with  such  a  huge  pile  of  clothing,  weakening 
them  by  excessive  warmth  and  perspiration,  and  displa- 
cing them,  which  is  the  most  effectual  way  of  deranging 
her  maternal  organs  and  functions,  and  thus  deteriora- 
ting herself  as  a  woman,  and  her  offspring  as  human 
beings.  To  hang  this  pile  of  extra  skirts  on  her  shoul- 
ders by  straps  would  be  most  detrimental ;  but  to  girt 
her  pelvic  region  by  tying  them  tight  enough  to  stay 
on,  of  necessity  displaces  both  bowels  and  all  the  adja- 


THE    BUSTLE    INJURES    POSTERITY.  65 

cent  organs,  and  is  one  of  the  greatest  causes  of  in- 
ducing those  female  complaints  which  are  so  almost 
universal,  and  so  very  fatal  to  female  charms,  and  to 
human  offspring.  Be  tntreated,  foohsh,  wicked  woman, 
if  you  will  still  continue  to  pile  on  these  enormous  loads 
of  extra  clothing,  to  at  least  hang  them  by  straps  upon 
your  SHOULDERS,  instead  of,  as  now,  by  strings  upon 
your  hips,  to  the  perpetual  girting  of  your  abdomen. 
Call  this  trifling  if  you  will,  but  it  is  one  of  the  great- 
est curses  of  civic  life.  Licentiousness,  in  all  its  forms 
and  degrees,  is  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  evils  it 
is  inflicting  upon  mankind,  because  that  no  more  effect- 
ually ruins  its  victims,  or  their  issue,  and  is  less  univer- 
sal. If  it  did  not  damage  woman  in  her  CHILD-BEARING 
relations — in  the  very  heart  of  her  nature — if  it  did  not 
so  effectually  weaken  her  female  apparatus  as  to  rob 
her  OFFSPRING  of  vitality,  and  thus  produce  all  the  evils 
ascribed  to  imperfect  fetal  nutrition — I  would  have  let 
her  dress  on  as  now.  But  though  I  could  have  borne 
to  have  seen  her  inflict  trifling  damage  on  the  outskirts 
of  her  nature,  yet  how  could  I  endure  to  see  her  igno- 
rantly  stabbing  herself  under  the  fifth  rib,  yet  hold  my 
peace  :  nor  merely  stabbing  herself,  but  inflicting  upon 
her  prospective  issue  the  very  worst  evil  it  is  in  her 
power  to  inflict  ?  Can  I  endure  to  stand  coolly  by,  and 
see  her  strangle  infants  by  the  million,  so  that  they  die 
a  lingering  death,  and  so  that  the  remainder  has  barely 
vitality  enough  to  survive,  and  are  poor,  puny  speci- 
mens of  humanity,  in  mind  and  body  ?  No,  I  can- 
not longer  hold  my  peace,  and  see  women  dress  thus, 
and  thereby  commit  suicide  and  infanticide  on  this 
scale,  commensurate  with  civic  life.  I  am  COMPELLED 
thus  to  "  cry  aloud  and  spare  not,  whether  ye  will  hear 
6* 


66  PHILOSOPHY    OF    COTTON    BREASTWORKS. 

or  whether  ye  will  forbear."  I  have  done  my  duty,  and 
done  it  faithfully,  yet  tenderlv.  Woman,  do  yours,  b) 
looking  this  truth  fairly  in  the  face. 

I  know  1  shall  put  you  in  an  awful  predicament,  be- 
cause so  few  women  have  any  pelvic  developments 
left,  and  would  appear  so  ridiculously  if  the  form  of 
their  dress  corresponded  with  that  of  their  persons;  and 
also,  because  they  will  now  be  ashamed  to  make  believe 
in  a  delicate  situation,  just  to  appear  interesting,  for  this 
will  now  press  upon  the  corns  of  their  modesty.  The 
dilemma  is  indeed  inexpressibly  trying  ;  but  it  will  turn 
the  current  of  female  attention  toward  actually  ENLARG- 
ING her  abdominal  organs,  instead  of  making  them  SEEM 
large  by  dressing  thus;  and  no  good  will  ever  bless  our 
race  at  all  to  compare  with  this,  as  no  evil  approximates 
toward  this  injury  to  the  female  consequent  on  dressing 
thus. 

COTTON    AND    PLAITED    BREASTWORKS. 

The  great  law  involved  in  our  subject,  that  woman 
pads  and  bustles  off  those  very  parts  which  child-bear- 
ing enlarges,  shows  why  she  pads  and  finnifies  her 
breasts.  Their  full  development  facilitates  one  part  of 
the  maternal  relations — the  nourishment  of  the  infant. 
Man  admires  fullness  here  because  it  promotes  mater- 
nity, and  woman,  instinctively  as  well  as  experimentally 
conscious  of  such  admiration,  pads,  and  plaits,  and  fixes 
off  these  parts  with  her  utmost  ingenuity.  Woman, 
shame  on  you,  to  make  believe  so  much  where  you  are 
so  little  !  And  the  fact  that  American  women  generally 
are  so  flat-breasted,  shows  hovr  miserable  their  maternal 
qualifications.  Fullness  here,  besides  indicating  good 
nursing  qualifications,  as  such,  also  betokens  a  vigorous 
female  apparatus  m  genera .,  Other  things  being  the 


AN    IMPORTANT    SIGN.  67 

same,  the  fuller  the  breasts  the  better  the  mothers. 
Not  that  the  largest-bosomed  wonaen  will  bear  the  best 
children,  or  the  smaller  the  breasts  the  more  inferior 
the  offspring,  but  that,  taking  a  given  woman,  she  will 
be  better  as  a  mother  if  full  breasted  than  that  same 
woman  would  be  if  small  breasted.  Yet  a  small-.bo- 
somod  woman  may  bear  better  children  than  another 
whose  mamma?  are  large,  because  she  may  exceed  the 
other  in  other  qualifications,  which  more  than  compen- 
sate for  this  deficiency  ;  yet  this  flat-breasted  woman, 
if  full  here,  would  be  a  better  mother,  and  of  course  a 
more  perfect  woman,  than  she  now  is. 

This  point  has  been  introduced  mainly  in  order  to 
enforce  on  woman  this  great  practical  truth,  that  the 
shrinking  of  her  bosom,  from  month  to  month  and  year 
to  year,  is  a  sure  sign  that  her  female  apparatus,  as  a 
whole,  is  waning,  and  she  becoming  less  and  less  capa- 
citated for  this  great  function  of  her  nature,  child- bear- 
ing— that  is,  she  is  becoming  a  less  and  still  less  per- 
fect woman,  as  well  as  less  and  less  attractive — that 
the  various  states  of  the  breasts  and  womb  are  recipro- 
cal— that  the  flaccidity  of  the  former  indicates  decline  in 
the  latter — is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  the  former  swell 
during  maternal  carriage,  and  are  firm  during  virginity, 
but  fall  and  lose  their  tension  and  elasticity  by  commerce, 
even  when  maternity  does  not  follow  ;  so  that  here  is 
an  infallible  test  as  to  whether  a  given  woman  has  or 
has  not  ever  "  known  man." 

421.       LET   WOMAN    BE    WHAT    SHE    WOULD    SEEM. 

She  bustles  off  her  pelvis  and  cottons  off  her  breast- 
works so  as  to  make  believe  have  large  pelvis  and  bo- 
soms, and  be  fitted  to  bear  fine  children.  And  these 


68         HOW  TO  ENHANCE  FEMALE  BEAUTY 

parts  should  be  fully  developed.  Indeed,  this  is  indis- 
pensable to  female  perfection — not  a  sign  merely,  but  a 
constituent  ELEMENT  of  such  perfection.  Then  how 
much  better  to  fill  out  these  parts  by  internal  develop- 
ment, instead  of  hoisting  false  co.lors !  If  it  is  so  desi- 
rable— if  it  enhances  her  charms  to  thus  APPEAR  to  be 
fully  developed  in  these  only  two  female  parts  which  it 
is  the  entire  object  and  labor  of  fashion  to  fill  out  and 
set  off,  how  infinitely  better  to  actually  FILL  out  these 
parts  by  INTERNAL  development  instead  of  external 
show. 

But  you  ask,  HOW  can  this  be  done  ?     BY  PROMOTING 

YOUR    HEALTH BY    INCREASING    YOUR    VITALITY.       These 

were  created  for  the  express  purpose  of  imparting 
vitality  to  offspring.  Hence  a  greater  amount  of  vitality 
is  concentrated  in  them  than  in  any  other  portion  of 
your  system,  and  the  more  you  augment  that  vitality, 
that  is,  the  better  your  health,  the  more  will  that  flow 
to  and  enlarge  these  parts,  relatively. 

To  return  from  this  seeming  but  not  actual  digres- 
sion. We  have  shown  that  one  of  the  first  offices  of 
the  woman  is  to  supply  vitality  to  the  embryo  407-408, 
and  that  a  full  pelvic  development — a  large  abdomen, 
placenta,  womb,  bowels,  etc.,  are  essential  to  such 
manufacture  and  secretion  of  such  vitality.  By  in- 
creasing the  health  and  vitality,  therefore,  you  enlarge 
these  female  developments,  and  thereby  enhance  all  the 
charms  of  your  sex.  If,  therefore,  I  have  mortified 
your  Approbativeness  by  either  tearing  off  your  bustles 
and  cotton  pads,  or  making  you  ashamed  while  wearing 
,  them,  I  have  more  than  made  the  loss  good  by  showing 
you  how  to  SUPPLY  the  loss  of  the  outward  resemblance 
by  the  inward  reality,  and  this  will  gratify  your  Appro- 


BY    IMPROVING    HEALTH.  G9 

bativeness  in  the  most  effectual  manner  possible.  As  an 
approbative  coach-maker  is  proud  of  a  perfect  coach 
because  it  is  a  perfect  riding  vehicle,  nor  is  he  ashamed 
of  it  because  it  is  a  poor  water  conveyance ;  and  as 
the  ship-builder  is  proud  of  his  ship  because  it  is  perfect 
OF  ITS  KIND  and  fulfills  its  object,  not  because  it  cannot 
traverse  land  ;  so  woman's  great  pride  should  be,  not 
lo  be  a  perfect  orator,  or  artisan,  or  farmer,  etc.,  but 
to  be  a  perfect  WOMAN,  and  as  this  implies  a  full  devel- 
opment of  her  female  organs  as  such — namsly,  pelvic 
and  mammal — therefore,  by  showing  her  how  to  enlarge 
these  organs,  the  ample  development  of  which  indicates 
and  constitutes  female  perfection,  what  can  mo'-e  effec- 
tually gratify  her  pride  ? 

To  illustrate.  You  are  a  young  woman.  Of  course 
it  is  your  great  pride,  and  should  be  your  paramount 
desire  and  aim,  to  become  a  perfect  female  as  such. 
How  can  you  do  this  ?  First  by  rendering  yourself 
healthy — by  increasing  your  vitality,  and  THUS  develop- 
ing your  breasts  and  pelvis.  Not  that  this  is  all ;  yet 
it  is  all  that  appertains  to  the  female  FIGURE — to  the 
PHYSICAL  woman.  Refinement,  exquisiteness,  good- 
ness, etc.,  are  elements  of  perfection  in  the  MENTAL 
female — of  which  in  its  place — yet  reference  is  here 
had  to  the  female  form  AS  SUCH.  And  I  repeat,  that  by 
developing  these  female  organs,  you  develop  the  con- 
stituent element  of  female  bodily  perfection.  And  this 
can  be  done  by  improving  the  health. 

On  the  contrary,  whatever  impairs  your  health,  first 
flattens  your  breasts  and  abdomen,  and  narrows  your 
hips,  and  thus  attacks  the  very  citadel  of  your  beauty 
and  all  your  charms,  as  well  as  proportionally  unfits 
you  to  bear  children,  because  you  have  not  sufficient 


70  EVILS    OF    SEWING. 

vitality  and  nDurishment  for  them  and  yourself.  Be 
persuaded,  O  woman,  to  heed  and  practice  the  great 
practical  truth  involved  in  this  law,  nor  practice  or 
allow  any  thing  to  impair  your  health,  both  because  it 
fades  all  your  charms,  and  unfits  you  for  your  only  mis- 
sion and  destiny  as  a  woman. 

Does  sewing  injure  your  health  ?  Then  you  are  very 
foolish  for  sewing,  because  every  hour  diminishes  your 
attractions — not  their  outskirts,  but  their  CONSTITUENT 
ELEMENTS.  Rather  go  poorly  clad,  poorly  fed,  poorly 
housed,  poorly  every  thing  else,  than  be  a  poor  woman, 
as  such.  Besides,  if  you  wear  less  bustles,  skirts,  and 
cotton,  and  put  fewer  stitches  into  your  breastworks 
and  waist- works,  you  could  support  yourself  by  far  less 
sewing  than  it  now  requires — especially,  if  you  should 
lay  aside  other  fashionable  yet  useless  accoutrements. 
No,  you  must  work  thus  hard,  and  break  down  your 
health,  not  to  live,  but  to  be  FASHIONABLE,  and  this  to  be 
ATTRACTIVE.  But  infinitely  more  attractive  would  you 
be,  if  more  healthy  though  less  fashionable.  I  protest 
that  all  this  extra  dressing  actually  DETRACTS  from  fe- 
male beauty,  instead  of  enhancing  it.  A  good-looking 
woman,  when  adorned  least,  is  most  adorned.  All  these 
extra  fixings  detract  from  her  beauty  by  hiding  it.  Her 
attractiveness  consists,  not  in  exhibiting  the  art  of  the 
milliner,  but  the  qualities  of  the  WOMAN,  as  such.  If  she 
be  plain,  fashionable  attire  makes  her  look  still  plainei 
by  contrast.  This  attempt  to  corceal  her  deformities 
only  reveals  them  in  the  more  bcld  relief.  Simplicity 
of  dress  will  set  off  your  natural  charms  to  far  better 
advantage  than  all  these  fashionable  flummeries.  You 
could  sew  abundantly  to  supply  all  your  REAL  wants, 
and  clothe  yourself  in  the  most  truly  attractive  habilia- 


NEW    MOONa.  71 

ments,  witfr  half  the  money  and  stitches  you  now  take, 
and  thus  save  your  health,  and,  of  course,  your  charms. 
I  am  not  over  fastidious ;  my  science  has  taught  me 
to  overlook  human  faults  and  follies ;  yet  I  must  here 
mention  one  thing  which  perfectly  disgusts  me.  It  is 
the  combination  of  the  bowing  back  produced  by  exces- 
sive bustling,  ALONG  WITH  the  flat  breast  and  inward 
warp.  To  put  on  a  strapping  great  bustle,  and  a  shawl 
or  mantle  over  the  whole,  so  as  to  make  the  woman 
bowing  from  the  head  around  the  back  to  the  feet,  and 
to  add  to  this  a  sinking  of  lungs  and  vital  organs,  and 
consequent  warping  inward  of  the  chest,  is,  accord- 
ing to  all  my  ideas  of  female  beauty,  a  perfect  mon- 
strosity. I  can  conceive  of  no  greater  distortion  of  the 
natural  form  of  woman,  and,  therefore,  nothing  more 
disgusting,  than  this  pretend-to-be-pretty  deformity. 
When  the  shawl  or  mantle  is  off,  so  that  we  see  the  in- 
ward curve  at  the  small  of  the  back,  the  sight  of  the 
bustle  may  be  tolerated  ;  but  this  bowing  shape  is  that 
assumed  by  age,  is  clumsy,  is  awkward,  is  perfectly 
ridiculous,  and  completely  disgusting.  It  makes  one 
sick,  really,  and  the  lack  of  both  taste  and  sense  it  indi- 
cates, nauseates  me  of  those  that  dress  thus. 

422.      EFFECTS   OF    THESE    FALSE    APPEARANCES    ON    THE    YOUNG 
BRIDEGROOM. 

Yet  this  bustling  and  padding,  however  they  may  aid 
a  girl  who  has  small  pelvic  and  mammal  developments 
in  exciting  the  love  of  a  husband,  they  do  not  aid  her  in 
RETAINING  it.  If  they  enable  her  to  cheat  him  into  the 
belief  that  she  is  something  where  she  is  nothing — and 
.hat,  in  these  specific  embodyments  of  female  beauty  *!8  — 
what  effect  will  the  naked  truth  have  upon  him  T  J/ 


72  EFFECTS    OF    THESE    FALSE    DEVELOPMENTS 

he  is  green  enough  to  be  caught  in  her  snares,  his 
first  introduction  to  her  as  his  wife  will  show  him,  that 
what  he  thought  was  food  for  love  was  only  cotton 
above  and  hemp  below.  Such  disappointment,  and  in 
an  ESSENTIAL  respect,  will  reverse  his  love.  Seeing  no 
charms  on  which  love  can  feast,  piqued  at  having  been 
thus  outwitted,  and  angered  at  thus  having  been  gulled, 
he  hates  where  he  would  have  loved  if  he  had  found 
what  he  had  a  right  to  expect.  She  has  thus  poisoned 
her  matrimonial  cup  in  the  outset;  and  a  life  of  dissatis- 
faction on  his  part,  because  of  her  barrenness  of  female 
charms,  and  of  soul-breaking  disappointment  on  hers, 
because  she  has  lost  the  one  thing  she  desires  on  earth 
— his  love — is  the  legitimate  finale  of  her  appearing  to 
be  what  she  was  not.  More  than  half  our  unhappy 
marriages  have  this  for  their  chief  cause.  Husbands 
do  not  disclose  their  barbed  arrow  ;  wives  cannot  ima- 
gine what  they  can  have  done,  to  thus  change  their 
love  from  that  tenderness  and  enthusiasm  evinced  be- 
fore marriage,  to  present  indifference  or  disgust.  Let 
me  tell  you.  You  HAVE  UNDRESSED — YOU  HAVE  SMALL 

BREASTS  AND  ABDOMEN YOU  ARE  INFERIOR  WOMEN  PHYSI- 
CALLY. It  is  not  possible  for  them  to  love  you,  because 
your  female  developments — your  only  female  charms,  as 
such — are  insignificant ;  whereas,  if  you  had  full  breasts 
and  ample  abdomens,  you  would  retain  the  love  you 
have  excited. 

"But,"  nearly  every  female  reader  will  object,  "I 
don't  want  this  carnal  love.  If  a  man  cannot  love  my 
MIND,  instead  of  my  person — my  mental  beauties,  in- 
stead of  my  sexual — I  don't  want  his  love."  Aye — but 
remember,  that  these  outward  female  developments  are 
infallib'e  tests  of  inner  feminine  loveliness ;  that  the 


ON    THE    BRIDEGROOM.  73 

physical  woman  is  but  a  symbol  and  type  of  the  mental 
woman  ;  that  you  cannot  have  a  perfect  female  mind 
and  character,  without  having  as  perfect  a  female  FIG- 
URE, which,  as  already  proved,  involves  a  large  and 
vigorous  sexual  apparatus  41!t.  Have  I  not  already 
demonstrated  this  law  of  reciprocity,  as  existing  be- 
tween the  mental  and  physical  sexuality  of  women  419? 

"But,"  it  is  objected,  "ill  health  shrinks  both  the  pelvis 
and  breasts,  and  thus  detracts  from  female  beauty."  It 
equally  detracts  from  the  mental  loveliness  of  woman. 
The  mind  flags  with  the  body.  Physical  disease  fades 
the  emotions,  substitutes  irritability  for  sweetness,  and, 
though  calculated  to  awaken  sympathy,  makes  us 
feel  that  its  subject's  mental  loveliness,  however  great 
by  nature,  wanes  as  health  declines,  but  revives  as 
health  restores  the  sparkling  eye,  lively  tongue,  gushing 
emotion,  intensity  of  feeling,  etc.  Yet,  for  proof  of  the 
great  law  here  involved,  of  reciprocity  between  the 
outward  and  inner  man,  and  beauty  of  form  as  indicat- 
ing and  accompanying  corresponding  beauty  and  per- 
fection of  mind,  the  reader  is  referred  to  my  other 
writings  p  "•  l<- ir  M  **•  «"•  «*•  8-  *"•  21°.  It  is  not  possible 
to  disorder  or  debilitate  the  female  sexual  organs,  with- 
out therein  and  thereby  diseasing  or  paralyzing  the 
MENTAL  woman,  nor  to  be  a  perfect  mental  woman, 
without  being  proportionably  perfect  physically.  Full 
breasts  and  pelvis,  therefore,  imply  corresponding 
strength  and  power  in  the  mental  feminine  department 
of  your  nature,  and  smallness  and  flabbiness  of  the 
former,  that  your  mental  attractiveness  as  a  female,  are 
weak. 

7 


74  FEMALE    BEAt'TT. 

.••   >«)"/j  I-;!';  i-.>oni/<?  a  Juu  KJ  Ufiifiow  Jfii'i'.vittt 

423.       TRUE    MODE    OF    INCREASING    THE    BEAUTY    OF    GIRLS. 

The  paramount  desire  of  mothers  touching  their 
daughters  is  to  see  them  well  MARRIED,  and  in  order  to 
this  they  strain  every  point  to  enhance  their  attractive- 
ness. But  they  pursue  diametrically  the  wrong  course. 
They  dress  them  to  death  on  the  one  hand,  and  press 
them  forward  in  studies  on  the  other,  at  the  same  time 
violating  every  cardinal  law  of  health  as  to  diet,  exer- 
cise, respiration,  etc.,  and  thus  blight  their  charms  by 
enfeebling  their  bodies.  The  present  fashionable  mode 
of  bringing  up  girls  interdicts,  in  the  most  effectual 
manner  possible,  nearly  every  thing  calculated  to  de- 
velop the  female  as  such,  and  substitutes  artificial  fool- 
ery for  the  natural  charms  of  female  excellence.  It  not 
only  does  not  fit  them  for  their  sole  natural  destiny  418, 
but  nothing  could  possibly  be  contrived  which  would 
so  effectually  unfit  them  for  becoming  mothers,  or,  by 
consequence,  efface  the  primitive  rudiments  of  beauty 
419.  Mothers,  if  you  would  render  your  girls  perfectly 
enchanting,  give  them  perfect  HEALTH.  This  is  the  first, 
second,  and  third  condition  of  female  beauty.  We  have 
already  seen  that  maternal  health  is  a  paramount  con- 
dition in  child-bearing,  and  therefore  in  beauty  ;  then 
make  this  health  as  PARAMOUNT  a  feature  of  their  educa- 
tion. Especially,  let  them  RUN.  The  more  they  romp, 
the  more  perfect  woren  they  will  become,  because  this 
very  wildness  is  a  primitive  condition  of  health.  '  Have 
no  fears  that  their  becoming  tomboys  will  militate  in 
the  least  against  perfect  female  propriety  and  delicacy 
when  they  become  women.  Love  Will  bring  out  this 
female  accomplishment,  and  the  more  perfect  the  romp, 
the  more  material  wUl  there  be  for  it  to  polish.  Bat 


MEAMS    OF    INCRE^ING    IT.  75 

Keep  them  cooped  up  in  the  house  all  their  lives  and 
penned  up  in  a  fashionable  strait-jacket  at  that — how  is  it 
possible  for  them  to  get  any  physical  basis  on  which  to 
rear  the  superstructure  of  attractiveness  ?  Let  girls  be 
girls — be  wild  and  free  as  colts — till  at  least  eighteen  to 
twenty.  Let  them  take  no  thought  about  their  appear- 
ance, or  even  try  to  be  pretty,  for  this  only  spoils  that 
natural  simplicity  which  infinitely  excels  the  attractive- 
ness of  art. 

424.  BLIGHTED  LOVE  WEAKENS  THE  FEMALE  ORGANS  AND  CHARMS. 

But  the  worst  evil  of  keeping  girls  within  doors  and 
pressing  them  on  in  their  studies,  is  that,  besides  rob- 
bing their  bodies  in  general  and  pelvic  organs  in  partic- 
ular, it  preternaturally  excites  their  nerves  and  brain, 
and  thus  causes  them  to  get  in  love  prematurely.  Of 
course  these  young  loves  must  be  broken  off,  AND  THIS 

BLIGHTS     THE    ORGANS    OF    THEIR     SEX,  and  of    COUrSC    the 

constituent  condition  of  beauty  418. 

For  example.  Take  a  woman  of  fair  health  and 
attractiveness  for  our  subject.  Engage  her  affections, 
and  you  thereby  quicken  the  action  of  all  the  organs, 
all  the  functions  of  her  sex  proper ;  and  thereby  en- 
hance her  every  female  charm  and  virtue.  For  the  full 
exposition  of  this  law  and  its  reason,  see  "  Love  and 
Parentage."  Then  break  that  love,  AND  YOU  CRIPPLE 

ALL    THE  FEMALE    FUNCTIONS   AND    ORGANS,  and  of   COUrSC 

break  down  the  very  elements  of  female  attractiveness 
*18,  because  of  the  perfect  reciprocity  which  exists  be- 
tween the  mental  and  the  physical  sexuality.  This 
reciprocity  compels  you,  when  you  blight  her  love, 
thereby  and  therein  to  impair  the  PHYSICAL  organs  of 
her  sex. 


76  BLIGHTED    LOVE 

Abundant  proof  of  this  law,  founded  in  universal 
experience,  is  the  fact  that  when  mothers  lose  their 
husbands  or  children,  they  almost  invariably  experience 
concomitant  female  difficulties — falling  of  the  womb, 
unhealthy  uterine  discharges,  etc.,  for  the  first  time,  if 
perfectly  healthy  in  these  parts  before,  and  a  great 
aggravation  of  them  if  previously  diseased  here.  No 
exceptions  to  this  rule  occur  except  where  the  female 
apparatus  was  peculiarly  strong  before,  so  that  the 
grief  was  not  adequate  palpably  to  disorder  it.  Inquire, 
and  you  will  find  the  concomitance  of  domestic  grief 
and  female  complaints  uniform.  Since,  therefore,  the 
i«versed  action  of  the  social  faculties  in  one  case  causes 
uterine  complaints,  similar  reverses  of  affection,  and  of 
course  of  love  among  the  first,  must  produce  female 
weaknesses  or  disorders,  and  thus  blast  woman's 
charms.  So  will  disagreement  between  husband  and 
wife,  provided  true  love  previously  existed 

425.       APPEAL    TO    MAN. 

In  view  of  this  law,  behold,  O  faithless  man,  what 
wholesale  havoc  of  all  that  is  loving  and  enchanting  in 
woman's  mind  and  person  you  are  effecting  by  trifling 
as  you  do  with  her  affections !  If  you  but  realized  how 
effectually  you  thereby  blight  tne  very  soul  and  essence 
of  the  woman  as  such,  and  thus  diminished  your  plea- 
sures in  woman  in  general  as  well  as  your  wife  in  par- 
ticular— for  while  you  have  prostrated  and  diseased 
the  female  organs  of  A's  wife,  by  calling  out  only  tc 
blight  her  love  while  young,  B  has  been  doing  the  same 
damage  to  the  girl  you  have  married  or  may  marry — 
It  does  seem  that  you  could  net  thus  wantorilv  trifle 


AS    INJURING    BEAUTY.  77 

with  woman's  love.  It  is  not  permitted  to  man  or  devi'i 
to  do  a  greater  evil.  Even  if  it  were  confined  to  the 
suffering  females  and  their  wronged  husbands,  no  other 
evil  could  equal  it;  yet  it  is  not.  Blighting  her  love 
weakens  her  female  organs,  and  this  impairs  her  off- 
spring, and  diseasing  this  department  of  her  nature 
diseases  unborn  generations418.  This  trifling  with  wo- 
man's love  is  not,  then,  after  all,  so  very  trifling  a  mat- 
ter. It  may  be  sport  to  your  fiendish  soul — for  none 
but  fiends  incarnate  will  thus  call  out  only  to  blight 
the  confiding  love-  of  woman — but  it  is  death  to  her  and 
her  prospective  issue,  or  at  least  an  essential  damage  to 
both,  and  if  not  literal  death  no  thanks  to  you.  You 
drilled  and  charged  the  rock,  and  if  the  explosion  only 
tore  off  a  piece  instead  of  blowing  it  all  to  shivers,  it  is 
not  because  you  did  not  take  the  very  means  to  do  all 
this  damage  to  lovely  woman  and  her  darling  children. 
Whatever  else  you  do  or  omit,  be  entreated  never  to 
pluck  this  central  gem  from  a  single  woman's  crownlet 
— never  to  girdle  this  vine  of  female  loveliness  at  its 
root — never  to  tear  out  this  heart's  core  of  woman's 
inner  soul. 

And  woman — mother  and  daughter,  married  and  sin- 
gle— be  entreated  10  keep  your  affections  from  being 
blighted,  by  every  means  in  your  power.  Nor  is  this 
difficult.  Take  an  independent  stand.  Instead  of  al- 
lowing your  gushing  affections  to  go  forth  just  for  the 
fun  of  it,  put  yourself  on  high  ground.  Let  men  see 
that  however  intelligent  you  may  be  in  conversation — • 
however  moral,  or  religious,  or  literary,  or  domestic — • 
however  freely  you  may  give  forth  all  jour  other  feel- 
ings and  excellencies,  yet  that  not  one  expression  or 
emotion  of  love  can  be  extorted  from  you  till  your 
7* 


78  APPEAL    TO    MAW. 

choice  is  made  and  PRELIMINARIES  ARE  SETTLED.  Let 
men  see  that  you  hold  your  love  as  the  choicest  trea- 
sure of  your  being,  not  to  be  conferred,  even  in  the 
smallest  degree,  except  upon  an  affianced  husband,  and 
this  very  dignity — this  high-toned  stand — more  than 
every  thing  else,  will  bring  men  upon  the  bended  knees 
of  confession  and  solicitation.  This  is  the  very  thing 
they  most  prize.  This  will  exalt  you  in  their  estimation 
incomparably  above  all  other  charms  or  excellencies, 
for  it  strikes  the  very  highest  chord  of  his  being.  Any 
man  who  is  worth  having — and  you  want  no  others — 
will  "  go  and  sell  all  that  he  hath"  to  obtain  such  a  wo- 
man. But,  as  long  as  you  hold  yourself  "  dog-cheap," 
by  showing  anxiety  to  love  and  be  loved,  by  yielding 
to  his  advances  and  reciprocating  love  feelings  with 
him  before  he  has  declared  any  matrimonial  .intentions 
— especially  as  long  as  you  allow  love  to  be  put  upon 
a  partially  animal  basis,  so  long  will  he  be  content  to  let 
things  remain  in  this  forward  state.  As  long  as  you 
seize  the  bait  as  far  as  he  proffers  it,  and  even  run  with 
it  to  show  that  you  have  swallowed  it,  he  will  feel — "A 
fish  thus  easily  caught  is  not  worth  hauling  up,  yet  I 
like  to  have  her  sport  with  the  hook ;  and  when  I  have 
done  playing  with  her,  I'll  cut  the  line.  May  be  it  will 
trouble  her  to  digest  all  she  has  swallowed."  Yet,  if 
she  had  paid  no  regard  to  his  love-tale  till  he  proposed 
matrimony — which  he  would  have  done  if  his  intentions 
were  sincere — and  if  they  are  not,  you  want  nothing  to 
do  with  him — your  high  stand  would  soon  have  brought 
him  to  his  bearing.  Nothing  disgusts  a  man  quicker 
than  undue  forwardness  in  a  woman.  Nothing  so  exalts 
her  in  his  eyes  as  reserve  during  the  settlement  of  the 
matrimonial  preliminaries.  Women  lose  many  offers 


EABLY    MARRIAGES.  7ft 

by  evincing  too  great  a  readiness  to  love  and  marry. 
And  this  extra  readiness  on  your  part  spoils  him  after 
you  get  him.  It  puts  you  in  his  power,  because  he  has 
obliged  you  by  marrying  you.  Woman,  over-anxiety 
to  marry  is  the  great  maelstroom  of  your  affection  and 
matrimonial  felicity. 

426.       EARLY   MARKIAGES  AND   YOUNG   MOTHERS. 

This  imperious  requisition  for  abundance  of  maternal 
nutrition,  rebukes  severely  the  prevailing  custom  of 
early  marriages,  or  rather,  of  premature  maternity.  It 
does  not  say  at  what  age  a  girl  should  marry,  but  it 
does  say  that  NO  female  should  become  a  mother  till 
FULLY  MATURED.  Till  her  own  organs  are  formed,  and 
growth  completed — till  she  has  spread,  filled  up,  and 
become  consolidated — and  her  life-power  overflows, 
and  becomes  almost  painfully  abundant — none  of  it  can 
safely  be  diverted.  Especially  is  it  dangerous  to  make 
so  powerful  a  diversion  as  that  required  for  foetal  nutri- 
tion, because  it  induces  that  robbery  of  mother  and 
child  already  shown  to  be  so  fatal  to  both  4r>412-413.  Thai 
this  bearing  process  is  most  exhausting,  has  already 
been  shown408.  That  none  but  full  grown  and  healthy 
females  can  furnish  the  required  amount  of  nutrition,  is 
apparent  from  the  entire  tenor  of  the  work  thus  far  4OT- 
40S.  What  consummate  folly,  then,  for  young  GIRLS  to 
rush  into  the  hymcnial  embrace,  and  thus  endanger  pre- 
mature maternity  and  consequent  exhaustion,  disease, 
and  an  early  grave.  A  wrinkled,  worn-out,  superannu- 
ated woman,  having  every  .appearance  of  being  forty- 
five,  applied  to  me  for  physiological  advice,  under  a 
complication  of  female  complaint,  anxious  to  know 
whe'.her  there  \ras  any  hope  left  01  her  rising  above 


80 


EARLY    MARRIAGES. 


tnem.  I  was  surprised  to  learn,  that  she  was  only 
twenty-six — that  she  had  ceased  bearing.  And  on 
inquiring  to  what  she  attributed  the  premature  failure 
of  her  functions,  she  replied,  "  I  married  at  fifteen, 
became  a  mother  at  sixteen,  and  am  an  old  woman  at 
twenty-six,  when  I  might  otherwise  have  been  just 
coming  into  my  prime."  Few  married  women  but  have 
suffered  from  this  same  cause.  The  number  of  mothers 
and  of  children  it  has  hurried  into  premature  graves,  is 
beyond  all  human  computation.  How  many  of  you, 
mothers,  owe  your  wrinkles,  your  prostration  of  the 
life-power,  your  pains,  and  your  aggravated  diseases 
to  this  cause  !  Then  sound  the  alarm.  Put  girls  upon 
their  guard.  Warn  them  of  the  imminent  danger  they 
incur.  Above  all,  keep  your  DAUGHTERS  from  incurring 
this  evil.  Old  age  will  overtake  them  quite  soon 
enough,  without  thus  hurrying  it  with  railroad  speed. 

In  view  of  this  law  of  nature,  what  shall  we  say  of 
those  foolish  girls  who,  not  content  to  wait  for  the  natu- 
ral appearance  of  that  function  which  transforms  them 
from  the  girl  to  he  woman,  use  every  means  to  hasten 
its  advent,  that  they  may  become  early  MARRIAGEABLE  ! 
Mothers  hasten  this  period  often  by  artificial  means 
in  their  daughters,  so  that  they  may  be  earlier  in 
market.  To  such,  "early  ripe,  early  rotten,"  applies 
with  redoubled  force.  It  is  like  plucking  green  fruit,  so 
as  to  hasten  its  maturity  ;  but  what  is  it  good  for  when 
ripe  ?  Several  years  too  soon  is  this  period  hurried  on, 
by  all  those  hot-bed  influences  of  boys'  and  girls'  parties, 
puppy  loves,  in-door  corfinement,  boarding-school  fool- 
eries, late  hours,  hot  drinks,  bad  diet,  impaired  health, 
and  thousands  of  other  like  things.  Wait  and  GROW 
before  you  attempt  to  ri^en.  Let  nature  choose  hei 


TIGHT    LACING.  81 

own  time  ;  yet  better  late  than  early,  because  the  later 
before  this  function  appears,  the  later  before  it  takes  its 
final  departure,  and  leaves  you  a  superannuated,  wrin- 
kled old  woman,  exchanging  the  rich  foliage  cf  young 
beauty  for  the  sear  and  yellow  leaf  of  withering  age. 

427-       TIGHT    LACING ITS    Rl  r.XOUS   EFFECTS    ON    OFFSPRING. 

That  this  practice  inflicts  the  very  worst  form  of 
ruin  on  woman,  as  a  mother,  and  on  prospective  off- 
spring, is  rendered  evident  by  every  page  of  our  work. 
No  evil  to  mother  or  child  can  equal  that  of  curtailing 
the  supply  of  vitality  to  both  ;  and  nothing  can  do  this 
as  effectually  as  tight  lacing.  If  it  were  merely  a  mark 
of  female  folly  and  ignorance,  or  if  its  ravages  were 
confined  to  its  perpetrators,  it  might  be  allowed  to  pass 
unrebuked  ;  but  it  strikes  a  deadly  blow  at  the  very 
LIFE  OF  THE  RACE.  It  girts  in  the  lungs,  stomach,  heart, 
diaphragm,  etc. — it  cripples  every  one  of  the  life-manu- 
facturing faculties,  impairs  circulation,  prevents  muscu- 
lar action,  and  lays  siege  to  the  very  citadel  of  this 
child-bearing  function.  By  as  much  as  abundance  of 
vitality,  air,  exercise,  and  good  digestion,  are  required 
in  the  mother,  by  so  much  is  this  practice  murderous  to 
both  child  and  mother,  because  it  stifles  them  all.  It 
allows  so  scanty  a  supply  of  vitality  to  the  embryo,  as 
often  to  prevent  its  entering  the  world  alive,  and  if  it 
does,  to  hasten  its  death  ;  by  most  effectually  cramping, 
inflaming,  and  weakening  the  vital  apparatus,  it  stops 
the  flow  of  life  at  its  fountain-head.  It  slowly,  but 
surely,  takes  the  lives  of  its  tens  of  thousands  before 
they  marry,  and  so  effectually  weakens  and  diseases,  as 
ultimately  to  cause  the  death  of  millions  more.  No 
tongue  can  tel .,  no  finite  mind  conceive,  the  weakness 


82  TIGHT    L.\C'NQ 

and  misery  it  has  occasioned,  or  the  number  of  deaths, 
direc.tlv  and  indirectly,  of  young  women,  bearing  mo- 
thers, and  weakly  infants  it  has  occasioned,  besides 
those  millions  on  millions  it  has  caused  to  drag  out  a 
short,  but  wretched  existence.  If  this  murderous  prac- 
tice continues  to  rr.ge  for  another  generation  as  it  has 
done  for  the  last,  it  will  bury  all  the  middle  and  upper 
classes  of  women  and  their  children,  and  leave  our  race 
to  be  perpetuated  by  the  uncivilized,  and  the  coarse- 
grained, but  healthy  lower  classes.  Most  alarmingly 
has  it  already  deteriorated  our  RACE,  AS  A  RACE,  in 
physical  strength,  in  power  of  constitution,  in  energy, 
in  talents.  Reader,  how  ir.any  of  YOUR  weaknesses, 
pains,  headaches,  nervous  affections,  internal  difficulties, 
and  wretched  feelings,  were  caused  by  your  mother's 
corset-strings  ?  Such  mothers  deserve  the  universal 
execration  of  their  children— of  all. 

Those  who  prefer  to  bury  their  children  to  the  troub- 
le or  expense  of  raising  them,  may  love  or  marry  tight- 
lacers  ;  but  those  who  would  rear  a  healthy,  talented, 
happy  family,  to  bless  mature  life,  and  nurse  declining 
years,  as  well  as  to  perpetuate  their  name  and  race 
upon  the  earth,  are  earnestly  enjoined  to  marry  full- 
chested  and  large-waisted  women,  for  such  will  be 
likely  to  live  long,  and  bear  a  vigorous  race  ;  but  those 
who  would  not  have  their  souls  rent  asunder  by  the 
premature  death  of  wife  and  children,  are  solemnly 
warned  not  to  marry  small  waists  :  for,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things,  slim,  small-waisted  women  must  die 
young,  and  bear  few  and  feeble  offspring. 

Whence  that  mortality  of  children  which  consigns 
more  than  one  half  of  all  that  are  born  in  our  cities 
to  an  early  grave  ?  Is  it  a  part  of  the  NECESSARY 


INJURIOUS    TO    OFFSPRING.  83 

operations  of  nature  ?  No  ;  it  is  vie:,  VTED  nature  :  and 
I  fearlessly  avow,  and  appeal  to  the  decision  of  any 
man  of  science  acquainted  with  the  subject,  to  say 
whether  this  is  not  the  most  effectual  cause  of  infantile 
death,  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  the  means 
of  that  most  revolting  of  all  crimes — infanticide  ?  Re- 
member, ye  young  ladies  who,  in  dressing  yourselves 
off  for  the  ball,  or  fashionable  party,  or  promenade — I 
beseech  you,  remember — that  you  are  not  only  sowing 
the  seeds  of  disease  and  premature  death,  which  will 
nip  all  your  own  pleasures  in  the  bud,  but  which  must 
also  yield  you  a  harvest  of  sorrows  too  many  to  number 
and  too  aggravated  to  endure  ;  that  you  are  bringing 
down  not  only  your  OWN  soul  with  sorrow  to  an  un- 
timely grave,  but  in  case  you  become  mothers,  your 
CHILDREN  also,  with  you  or  before  you,  into  their  graves. 
If  you  wish  to  exclaim,  under  a  burden  of  nervousness 
and  mental  distress  which  you  cannot  support,  "  Oh, 
wretched  life  that  I  live  !" — if  you  wish  to  break  the 
heart  of  your  husbands  and  friends  by  your  premature 
death,  and  have  your  own  souls  pierced  through  with  in- 
describable anguish  by  the  death  of  your  children — if  you 
wish  to  die  while  you  live,  and  to  die  finally  before  your 
time — if  you  wish  to  disgust  every  sensible  man  who 
sees  you — if  you  would  exchange  the  rosy  cheek  of 
health,  for  the  portion  of  laced  and  sickly  beauty  ;  and 
the  plump,  round,  full  chest  and  form  of  unlaced  health 
for  the  poor,  scrawny,  haggard,  sunken,  and  almost 
ghastly  look  of  all  who  lace — then  buy  corset  after 
corset,  lace  tighter  and  tighter,  and  still  tighter,  and 
keep  laced  night  and  day  till  the  wheels  cf  life,  com- 
pressed within  limits  too  narrow  longer  to  continue 
action,  cease  to  move,  and  tiFi  that  fountair  of  life,  and 


84  TIGHT    L. ICING 

vitality,  and  happiness,  flowing  from  these  compressed 
organs,  is  dried  up  at  its  very  source,  and  ceases  longer 
to  flow. 

Yet  this  suicidal,  this  infanticidal,  this  INFERNAL 
practice,  is  still  perpetrated.  It  is  indeed  stoutly  denied, 
yet  almost  universally  practiced,  even  in  this  age  of 
light — is  practiced  even  by  CHRISTIAN  mothers — by 
pretended  DAUGHTERS  OF  ZION.  Yea,  more  ;  these 
:nfanticides,  WITH  THEIR  CORSETS  ACTUALLY  ON,  are 
admitted  into  the  professed  "  sanctuary  of  the  Most 
High,"  and  to  the  communion-table  of  "the  saints!"  Aa 
though  Jesus  Christ  loved  them  the  better  the  lighter 
they  laced  !  Than  a  corseting  Christian,  no  self-contra- 
diction can  be  greater.  There  may  possibly  be  such 
anomalies  as  a  Christian  drunkard,  or  praying  rascal, 
or  pious  cheat  or  liar  ;  but  how  CAN  infanticides  and 
suicides  ever  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ?  If  at  all,  it 
must  indeed  be  "so  as  by  FIRE."  How  can  corseted 
MURDERERS  OF  HABES  worship  God  ?  What  profanation 
of  God  and  things  sacred  can  exceed  wearing  stays  to 
church  ?  Yet  where  else  are  a  tithe  as  many  worn  ? 
Still,  our  dumb-dog  ministers  either  do  not  know  that 
corseting  involves  the  worst  of  crimes,  or,  know- 
ing, dare  not  open  their  mealy  mouths  ;  and  even  ad- 
minister the  SACRAMENTS  tO  those  "  IN  THE  VERY  ACT*'  of 

perpetrating  the  worst  of  crimes,  in  two  of  its  most 
aggravated  forms.  Yet  Christian  missionaries  must  be 
sent  to  the  benighted  heathen,  to  proclaim  the  horrid 
sinfulness  of  their  committing  these  same  crimes,  though 
by  a  process  as  much  less  horrible  than  that  by  which 
these  very  female  missionaries,  as  well  as  those  who  sent 
them,  actually  perpetrate  these  identical  crimes,  as  to  be 
iuddenly  killed  outright,  is  less  tragical  than  gradual 


CAUSES    INFANTICIDE.  85 

starvation  and  strangulation :  for  wherein  consists  the 
difference  between  causing  death  directly  or  indirectly, 
so  that  the  death  is  caused  ?  It  is  even  as  much  worse, 
to  preface  death  with  DISEASE  of  body  and  mind,  as  to 
torture  BEFORE  murdering. 

Moralists,  Christians,  reformers,  philosophers,  and 
philanthropists,  of  all  sects  and  grades  ;  come,  let  us 
unite  our  moral  force,  and  present  a  frowning  front  to 
this  RACE-RUINING  practice.  Let  us  all  point  the  fin- 
ger of  derision  at  all  tight-lacers.  Let  us  insist  upon 
"  NATURAL  WAISTS,  OR  NO  WIVES."  What  is  as  desira- 
ble,  yet  what  is  so  destructive,  of  this  gem  of  paradise  as 
lacing  ?  Men,  in  particular,  should  root  out  this  prac- 
tice, because  they  introduced  it.  Woman  laces  thus  to 
please  the  MEN,  not  herself.  As  soon  as  we  cease  to 
enforce  on  her  this  practice,  she  will  abandon  it.  And 
be  assured,  that  you  look  incomparably  more  maternal, 
more  womanly,  more  interesting,  and  every  way  more 
acceptable,  to  all  of  correct  taste,  when  dressed  in  your 
loose  gown — allowed  to  hang  upon  your  shoulders — 
without  any  thing,  or  at  least  any  thing  but  a  loose  belt, 
at  the  waist. 

"  But  I  do  not  dress  tight,"  says  one  :  "  Nor  I,"  says 
another:  "Nor  I  either,"  says  a  third  ;  "  this  practice  is 
now  obsolete." 

This  is  not  so,  as  the  following  test  will  prove  *Any 
woman  dresses  tight,  whose  dress  parts  far  enough  to 
show  its  hooks  and  eyes  ;  and  how  few  dresses  but  do 
this  !  It  is  not  mere  corset  strings  that  do  this  deadly 
mischief,  but  ALL  compression  of  the  vital  organs — • 
whatever  interrupts  perfect  freedom  of  breathing  or 
motion. 

Bearing  women,  bs  entreated  to  allow  not  the  least 
8 


86  BEARING    MOTHERS 

tightness  of  your  clothes,  from  the  shoulders  downward. 
Do  not  even  tie  or  girt  your  clothes  tight  enough  to 
stay  on,  but  let  them  depend  in  flowing  looseness  from 
your  shoulders.  I  call  your  attention  to  the  great  dis- 
comfort you  experience  from  even  a  trifling  pressure, 
and  how  great  your  relief  when  you  unloose  them  at 
night.  Now  all  this  is  full  of  meaning,  and  of  warning. 
It  is  nature's  admonition,  not  to  prevent  the  free  motion 
and  enlargement  of  your  whole  frontal  region.  Com- 
pression would  not  inflict  this  uneasiness,  if  it  were  not 
exceedingly  injurious  to  you — to  your  precious  charge. 

428.      REQUISITION    FOR    HEAT,    MUSCLE,    BONE,    NITROGEN,    ETC. 

Though  vitality  in  mothers  is  the  paramount  condi- 
tion of  health  in  offspring,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  the 
only  thing  required.  ANIMAL  HEAT  is  scarcely  less  im- 
portant. I  say  animal  heat  in  contradistinction  from 
artificial.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  mother  warms  her- 
self by  fire,  she  must  keep  a  full  supply  of  INTERNAL 
heat.  Specific  directions  for  doing  this  will  be  found  in 
"Physiology,  Animal  and  Mental flo-9t  n)-115."  Let  pro- 
spective mothers  who  are  troubled  with  cold  hands, 
feet,  skin,  etc.,  or  feel  chilly,  inquire  out  the  cause — 
•whether  a  want  of  carbon,  consequent  on  impaired 
digestion,  or  a  deficiency  of  oxygen,  consequent  on  im- 
perfect respiration,  breathing  a  vitiated  atmosphere, 
etc.,  or  feebleness,  or  oppression  of  the  heart,  and  con- 
sequent impairment  of  the  circulation — and  obviate  the 
effect  by  removing  the  cause 

MUSCLE. 

A  full  development  of  the  muscular  system  of  the 
child  is  most  desi-able.  Few  things  are  more  impor- 


REQUIRE    MUSCLE.  87 

tant,  than  a  strong  and  active  muscular  system.  The 
materials  for  its  formation,  must  of  course  be  furnished 
by  the  mother.  .This  requires  her  to  do  two  things — to 
EXERCISE  her  muscles  habitually  ;  not  merely  in  light 
work,  such  as  sewing,  walking  about  house,  etc.;  but  in 
something  which  requires  her  to  put  forth  much  strength, 
and  that  often.  In  this  respect,  how  deficient  are  most 
American  women  !  How  far  inferior  to  the  women  of 
any  other  nation  !  English  women — those  of  rank  in- 
cluded— often  take  walks  of  eight  and  twelve  miles, 
just  for  exercise,  and  ride  much,  practice  gymnastics, 
etc.  But  the  muscular  feebleness  of  most  American 
women,  is  as  disgraceful  to  them  as  injurious  to  their 
children.  At  the  down-hill  rate  we  are  now  going  on, 
the  next  generation  will  be  too  weakly  to  do  any  kind 
of  hard  work,  and  fit  only  for  sedentary  occupations. 
Nor  can  this  muscular  debility  be  prevented,  except  by 
our  girls  romping  more,  and  our  women  taking  more 
vigorous  exercise.  .Scarcely  any  thing  would  do  more, 
for  either  mothers  or  children,  than  the  general  practice 
of  gymnastic  exercises  by  females. 

But  as  we  shall  hereafter  point  out  another  imperious 
demand  for  muscular  power  in  mothers,  when  treating 
of  delivery,  we  take  leave  of  this  point  here,  by  recom- 
mending one  other  promotive  of  muscularity  in  both 
mother  and  child,  namely,  a  diet  composed  mostly  of 
wheat,  either  boiled,  cracked,  or  coarse  ground,  without 
bolting,  because  it  contains  a  large  amount  of  this  ma- 
terial for  the  formation  of  muscle.  Yet  prospective 
mothers  should,  if  possible,  avoid  fine  flour  bread. 
Lean  meat  also  contains  muscle,  yet  I  am  not  partial 
to  a  meat  diet,  especially  at  this  time.  The  vegetable? 
and  especially  the  fruit  kingdom,  will  furnish  both  mus 


88  DIRECTION    TO    BEARING     VOMEN. 

cle  and  su;  h  other  materials  as  the  child  requires,  quite 
as  well  as  the  animal :  yet  better  to  obtain  these  mate- 
rials from  meat  than  not  to  have  them.  And  if  meat 
is  omitted,  its  place  must  be  supplied  by  food  rich  in 
fibrin. 

NITROGEN. 

This  chemical  substance  enters  largely  into  the  com- 
position of  all  forming  organs,  and  therefore  the  mo- 
ther's food  should  be  rich  in  this  substance.  Milk 
contains  it  in  considerable  quantities,  and  easily  soluble. 
So  do  fruits.  My  impression  is,  that  cocoa,  and  choco- 
late also,  contain  it,  and  ar*>.  especially  good  for  pro- 
spective mothers 

FRtflT. 

But  probably  no  one  article  of  diet  is  as  well  adapted 
to  women  in  this  situation  as  FRUIT — particularly  berries 
of  all  kinds,  peaches,  and  good  pears.  They  should  al- 
most live  on  them  ;  and  sweet  fruit,  is  doubtless  prefer- 
able to  sour.  Fruit  is  cooling,  aperient,  nutritious,  full 
of  the  materials  required  by  the  forming  child,  and 
withal,  delicious.  Prospective  mothers  will  do  well  to 
live  on  wheat  and  fruit  almost  wholly. 

429.       OFFSETTING    THE    MOTHER'S    EXCESSES    AND    DEFECTS. 

To  one  other  most  important  application  of  the  great 
law  already  presented,  namely,  that  the  embryo  takes 
on  most  of  those  ingredients  which  abound  most  in  the 
mother,  special  attention  is  invited.  To  again  illustrate 
the  law,  that  its  mighty  import  may  be  fully  perceived 
and  felt :  Suppose  a  naturally  strong-muscled  mother  to 
exercise  her  muscles  but  little  at  this  period,  her  child 
will  have  but  feeble  muscles ;  whereas,  a  mother  whose 


OFFSETTING    THEIR    OWN     DEFECTS.  89 

muscles  are  naturally  feeble,  if  she  puts  forth  much 
healthful  muscular  exertion  at  this  period,  will  render 
the  muscular  element  more  abundant  in  herself  than  is 
natural  to  her,  and  this  will  endow  her  child  with  more 
of  it  by  nature  than  she  originally  possessed  :  and  thus 
of  digestive  power,  the  respiratory  function,  nervous 
susceptibility,  etc. 

Now  what  your  children  require,  and  ALL  they  re- 
quire, in  order  to  become  perfect  and  powerful-  physi- 
cally, is  VIGOR  AND  BALANCE  of  all  the  bodily  functions. 
Behold  how  this  law  enables  mothers  to  secure  so  great 
a  desideratum  !  Suppose,  then,  your  skin  is  naturally 
weak  ;  by  taking  special  pains  to  excite  it  by  friction, 
right  bathing,  etc.,  you  can  so  quicken  this  function  for 
the  time  being  in  yourself,  as  to  send  to  your  forming 
child  abundance  of  the  skin-forming  material,  together 
with  cutaneous  activity,  and  thus  remedy  in  your  child 
this  defect  in  yourself. 

Or  suppose  your  lungs  are  weak,  but  muscles  good. 
Your  child  will  be  almost  certain  to  inherit  a  good  mus- 
cular system,  even  without  your  taking  much  extra 
pains  to  cultivate  it  in  yourself;  and  if  you  employ  every 
means  to  invigorate  your  lungs,  its  lungs  will  be  stron- 
ger than  yours,  and  its  muscles  as  strong,  so  that  this 
want  of  balance  in  yourself  will  be  obviated  in  your 
offspring. 

Having  thus  clearly  stated  the  law  involved,  and 
mode  of  applying  it,  we  urge  upon  prospective  mothers 
to  learn  wherein  they  are  defective,  and  to  offset  such 
defects  in  their  children  by  the  cultivation  in  themselves, 
at  this  period,  of  their  weaker  functions.  This  law  puts 
it  in  the  power  of  mothers  to  render  their  children  far 
better,  every  w^y  than  themselves.  Be  entreated, 
"  8* 


90  ^    MARKS    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

prospective  mothers,  to  learn  your  maternal  defects, 
and  then  to  supply  them  at  this  period,  so  that  your 
prospective  children  may  be  marred  with  none  of  those 
defects,  or  pained  with  none  of  those  diseases  which 
afflict  you,  but  shall  be  PERFECT  men  and  women  in  all 
their  bodily  organs  and  functions.  In  short,  study  and 
apply  this  whole  subject  of  foEtal  nutrition,  offsetting, 
and  development,  and  you  car  bear  children  far  better 
by  nature  than  yourselves. 

430.       MARKS    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

If  proof  were  wanting  that  all  the  various  states  of 
the  mother's  mind  and  body  stamped  their  impress  upon 
the  forming  character  of  her  child,  the  fact  that  mothers 
frequently  mark  their  children  before  birth  furnish  such 
proof.  But  this  point  is  universally  conceded.  It  only 
remains,  therefore,  to  inquire  HOW  FAR  these  maternal 
states  affect  the  child.  Nature's  answer  is,  "  ALL,  or 
none."  And  our  object  in  entering  this  new  field  of 
inquiry  is  to  re-rivet  the  great  thought  of  the  book — the 
perfect  reciprocity  existing  between  mother  and  child — 
by  showing  that  certain  emotions  and  states  of  the 
mother's  mind  actually  change  and  distort  even  the 
child's  bodily  shape,  so  as  to  occasion  deformities  and 
monstrosities.  Medical  men  have  long  and  ably  dis- 
cussed this  question,  and  finally  decided  both  against  it 
ai.d  the  FACTS  in  the  case,  because  they  could  not  see 
now  such  maternal  states  of  mind  can  affect  the  fetal 
form.  To  deny  what  we  see  because  we  cannot  EXPLAIN 
it,  is  not  exactly  philosophical.  We  ought  rather  to 
admit  nature's  facts,  even  though  our  limited  reasonings 
cannot  comprehend  their  mode  of  production.  Let  us 


STRAWBERRY    AND    LOBSTER    MARKS.  91 

\>ok  first  at  a  few  of  these  facts,  and  sum  up  with  an 
ttempted  solution  or  rationale  of  them. 

A    STRAWBERRY    MARK. 

A  physician  of  considerable  science  and  talent,  who 
resides  near  Philadelphia,  after  expressing  his  disbelief 
in  the  doctrine,  and  opposing  it  strenuously,  related  the 
following  fact,  in  proof  and  illustration  of  it  :  A  woman, 
some  months  before  the  birth  of  her  child,  wanted  some 
strawberries  very  much,  which  she  could  not  obtain ; 
and  fearing  that  this  ungratified  desire  would  mark  her 
child,  and  having  heard  that  the  mark  would  be  on  the 
child  just  where  she  touched  her  own  body,  put  her 
hand  on  her  hip.  BEFORE  THE  CHILD  WAS  BORN  she  pre- 
dicted that  it  would  have  a  mark,  told  what  the  mark 
would  resemble,  namely,  a  strawberry,  and  WHERE  it 
would  be  found,  namely,  on  the  child's  hip,  and  when 
the  child  was  born  it  hnd  a  mark  resembling  a  straw- 
berry, and  on  its  HIP.  He  also  mentioned  several  other 
similar  cases,  but  still  maintained  that  there  was  nothing 
m  this  doctrine. 

An  aunt-in-law  to  the  author,  while  riding  out  with 
her  sister,  saw  some  strawberries  spilled  by  the  side  of 
the  road,  which  she  wanted  very  much.  But  her  sister, 
who  was  driving,  only  laughed  at  her,  and  drove  on, 
turning  a  deaf  ear  to  her  entreaties  to  stop,  and  to  her 
apprehensions  that  the  child  would  be  marked.  The 
child  WAS  marked,  on  the  back  of  its  neck,  with  a  cluster 
of  red  spots,  in  shape  resembling  spilled  strawberries. 

A    LOBSTER    MARK. 

At  Frye  village,  Mass.,  in  1844,  the  author  saw  a  Miss 
El<7i  Cl  ickering,  who  had  an  extra  thumb,  resembling, 


92  MARKS  AXO  DEFORMITIES. 

with  the  true  thumb,  a  lobster's  claw.  Its  joint  and 
muscles  cause  it  to  work  inward,  so  as,  with  the  thumb 
proper,  to  be  a  close  imitation  c1"  a  lobster's  c'aw  :  and, 
during  her  youthful  days,  it  and  the  thumb  were  of  a 
bright  red,  like  a  boiled  lobster.  The  history  of  it,  as 
given  by  her  mother,  is  this :  She  bought  a  large,  fine 
lobster,  while  enciente,  and  left  it  for  a  moment,  when 
it  was  stolen.  She  was  disappointed  in  the  extreme  by 
the  loss,  and  could  not  replace  it ;  and  this  lobster's 
claw  on  her  daughter's  hand  was  the  consequence.  Of 
late  it  has  lost  its  redness. 

MOUSE    MARKS. 

Wm.  H.  Brown  tells  the  story  of  his  having  a  mark 
on  one  of  his  legs  resembling  a  mouse,  and  that  his 
mother,  while  carrying  him,  was  in  a  room  in  which  a 
mouse  was  confined,  which  t>iey  were  trying  to  kill,  and 
which,  jumping  up  under  her  clothes,  frightened  her 
terribly. 

In  Philadelphia,  a  lawyer  has  on  his  forehead,  and 
running  up  into  his  hair,  a  dark,  dingy-colored  mark, 
elevated,  and  covered  with  short  hair,  which  he  said 
his  mother  supposed  was  caused  by  her  being  much 
frightened,  while  carrying  him,  by  a  mouse. 

DLTTM    MASKS. 

My  father  relates  the  blowing  as  having  occurred 
in  my  native  town.  A  woman  rode  by  a  tree  full  of 
ripe  wild  plums,  common  in  that  region,  which  she 
craved  very  much,  but.  which  she  could  not  obtain. 
Her  child,  born  some  months  after,  had  a  fleshy  append 


CHERRY    MARKS AMPUTATED    THUMB.  83 

igc  hanging  from  the  thumb,  resembling  a  wild  plum, 
and  hanging  by  a  stem  of  flesh. 

A  pregnant  mother  in  Hanover,  Mich.,  longed  for 
butter,  which  could  not  be  obtained,  it  being  in  the  win- 
ter, and  there  being  more  emigrants  than  eatables.  Her 
child  was  born  with  a  running  sore  on  its  neck,  which 
yielded  to  none  of  the  remedies  applied  to  it,  till  tho 
mother  remembered  her  disappointed  longing  after  but- 
ter, and  anointed  it  with  butter,  by  which  it  was  soon 
cured. 

CHERRY   MARKS. 

The  author  knows  a  little  girl  marked  on  the  forehead 
with  a  bright- red  excrescence  resembling  a  cherry, 
caused,  as  its  mother  says,  by  her  longing  one  evening 
for  a  cherry,  the  last  of  the  season,  which  she  tried  in 
vain  to  reach. 

An  old  neighbor  of  the  author  was  wont  to  show  us 
boys  the  cherries  on  his  arm,  which  almost  covered  it, 
caused,  as  his  mother  supposed,  by  her  disappointed 
longing  after  that  fruit. 

AMPUTATED    THUMB. 

The  author's  wife  has  often  seen  the  thumb  of  an  in- 
fant, a  younger  playmate  of  hers,  preserved  in  spirit, 
and  found  among  the  mesentery,  it  having  been  sepa- 
rated from  its  stump  before  birth.  Some  months  before 
the  birth  of  this  child,  the  mother  saw  her  husband's 
thumb  cut  off  by  an  axe,  which  excited  her  feelings  to 
the  highest  pitoh. 


94  MARKS    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

A    WINE    MARK. 

Joshua  Coffin  relates  the  following  of  one  of  his  play 
mates,  whose  face,  neck,  and  body,  were  spotted,  as  if 
some  liquid,  like  wine,  had  been  spattered  on  him.  His 
mother  accompanied  her  husband,  a  deacon,  to  town,  to 
procure  wine  for  communion,  a  taste  of  which  she  want- 
ed very  much,  but  for  which  she  durst  not  ask.  While 
going  home,  the  cork  got  out,  and  the  wine  was  spilt  all 
over  her  new  white  dress.  The  mortification  caused 
by  soiling  her  dress,  and  the  disappointed  longings  after 
the  wine,  marked  her  child  with  the  spots  alluded  to. 

TURNING    BLACK    AND    BLUE". 

A  Mrs.  Lee,  of  London,  Canada  West,  witnessed, 
from  her  window,  the  execution  of  Burly,  from  the  jail 
window,  who,  in  swinging  off,  broke  the  rope,  and  was 
precipitated  to  the  ground,  with  his  face  all  black  and 
blue,  from  being  choked.  This  horrid  sight  caused  her 
to  feel  awfully ;  and  her  son,  born  three  months  after- 
ward, whenever  any  thing  occurs  to  excite  his  fears 
becomes  black  and  blue,  or  livid-like,  in  the  face,  an 
instance  of  which  the  author  witnessed. 
-T:  m  'i«>  d  ft  if  if  "  '•  *»»  **•'•''  <*V>»ii>5.sj  OH| 

FIRE   MARK. 

Dr.  Curtis,  the  young  but  gifted  lecturer  on  Physi- 
ology, relates  the  case  of  a  woman  who  witnessed,  from 
A  distance,  the  burning  of  Pennsylvania  Hall,  and  whose 
son,  born  some  three  months  afterward,  has  a  spot 
which  resembles  a  flame  of  fire  streaking  uf  in  different 
places ;  and  several  highly  interesting  facts  of  this  kind 
will  be  found  stated  in  the  work  entitled,  "  Mental  and 
Moral  Qualities  Transmissible  " 


PROMISCUOUS    CASES. 


A   MARK    OF    INTOXICATION. 


96 


la  Waterbury,  Vt,  there  lived  a  young  man  who  ap- 
peared as  if  intoxicated,  supposed  to  have  beer  caused 
by  his  mother's  seeing  a  drunkard  while  carrying  him. 
His  intellect  was  good. 

A    MENAGERY    MARK. 

In  Woodstock,  Vt.,  several  years  ago,  a  pregnant 
mother  visited  a  menagery,  and  became  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  animals  she  saw.  Some  five  months  after- 
ward she  gave  birth  to  a  monster,  some  parts  of  which 
resembled  one  wild  animal,  and  other  parts  other  ani- 
mals. It  died  soon  after. 


A   MONKEY    MARK. 

[ 

There  is  a  child  now  living  in  Boston,  whose  coun- 
tenance bears  such  a  strict  resemblance  to  a  monkey, 
as  to  be  observed  at  once.  The  mother  visited  a  men- 
agery while  pregnant,  and  while  there,  a  monkey  jump- 
ed upon  her. 

4.N    IDIOTIC    MARK. 

James  Copeland,  forty-four  years  old,  is  below  par  in 
intellect,  and  under  guardianship,  and  quite  inferior  to 
both  parents  in  intelligence.  He  is  good-natured,  quite 
mechanical,  and  very  fond  of  whittling  ;  understands 
how  to  do  most  kinds  of  work,  but  is  quite  slow,  and 
very  particular  to  have  every  thing  in  proportion  and 
order  ;  can  count  money  but  poorly,  and  does  not  put 
the  cash  value  to  any  kind  of  property,  though  he  dis- 
tinguishes between  good  and  poor  cattle,  and  looks 


06  MARKS    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

behind  him  while  eating,  probably  fifty  times  each  meal 
His  parentage,  on  both  sides,  is  good  ;  and  his  idiocy 
and  looking  behind  him  when  eating,  were  caused  by 
his  mother's  fear  lest  she  .should  be  surprized  by  an 
idiot  who  lived  near  her,  who  often  tried  to  frighten 
her.  At  table,  she  usually  sat  with  her  back  toward 
the  door,  and  often  turned  around,  while  eating,  to  see  if 
he  was  not  making  his  appearance.  She  apprehended 
the  fate  of  her  son,  before  he  was  born. 

MARK    BY    FRIGHT. 

I  saw  a  man  in  West  Randolph,  Vt.,  who  was  ?ome- 
\vhat  deficient  in  mind  and  body,  occasioned,  as  is  sup- 
posed, by  his  mother's  being  frightened  and  thrown 
from  a  wagon  some  months  before  his  birth 

A    BROKEN    BACK. 

Mrs.  Dyke,  a  feeble,  nervous  woman,  who  han  borne 
no  children,  though  she  had  been  married  twelve  years 
while  pregnant,  on  a  gun  being  fired  under  her  window 
sprung  up,  exclaiming,  "  That  broke  my  back  !"  Some 
months  afterward  a  child  was  born,  WITH  ITS  BACKBONE 
ACTUALLY  BROKEN — dead,  of  course.  The  father  went 
to  my  informant,  a  lawyer,  to  get  a  writ  to  take  up  the 
one  who  fired  the  gun,  whom  he  had  cautioned  NOT  to 
fire  it,  lest  it  should  produce  abortion. 

MRS     BUTLER    AND    HER    STRONG,    BUT    FRANTIC    IDIOT. 

Mrs.  Butler,  of  Williamstown,  Vt.,  was  the  town 
bully  for  twenty-three  years,  and  whipped  every  man 
in  it  who  opposed  or  offended  her.  She  was  a  strap- 
ping great  woman,  tremendous  in  point  of  strength,  and 
was  fined  some  five  hundred  dollars  for  assaults  and 


A    WEAKLY    SON.  9  - 

battery  on  men.  All  who  knew  her,  feared  her.  Her 
only  child  is  a  fool,  and  very  fierce  and  ferocions.  and 
now  confined  in  a  cage  mostly  under  ground,  chained, 
and  fed  as  if  a  pig.  His  strength  is  tremendous — so 
great  that  he  will  hold  a  crowbar  out  straight,  with  one 
hand,  by  grasping  it  at  one  end. 

A  husband  and  wife  moved  to  Sharon,  near  Lake 
George,  while  it  remained  an  unbroken  forest.  Having 
no  neighbors,  they  got  out  of  provisions  the  first  year  ; 
and  before  they  could  raise  any,  they  could  barely  ob- 
tain sufficient  sustenance  to  support  life,  and  that  by 
eating  roots,  boiling  bark,  etc.  Their  child,  born  under 
these  circumstances,  and  now  living,  is  the  very  picture 
of  despair — poor,  dyspeptic,  hypochondriac,  and  feeble, 
both  in  mind  and  body.  But  they  put  in  a  large  crop 
of  wheat,  which  the  influx  of  emigration  enabled  them 
to  sell  at  great  prices,  so  that  they  had  abundance,  and 
cleared  some  three  thousand  dollars  the  second  year — 
every  thing  going  prosperously.  Their  next  child,  born 
under  these  auspicious  circumstances,  is  a  fine,  manly, 
strong,  noble-looking,  energetic,  and  highly  talented 
man,  and  a  real  steam-engine  for  driving  through  what- 
ever he  undertakes.  His  mother  told  him  the  cause  of 
his  brother's  debility,  and  charged  him  to  let  him  want 
for  nothing. 

A    CLUB-FOOTED    MARK. 

Mr. ,  of  W.,  Vt.,  is  club-footed,  produced  by  his 

mother's  being  thrown  from  a  wagon  before  his  birth. 
His  second  son  was  born  some  three  months  after  he 
had  injured  his  foot,  which  his  wife  dressed  and  rubbed 
daily.  The  other  children  were  not  thus  marked, 
though  their  mother  feared  they  would  be,  and  suffered 
every  thing  in  consequence.  Her  other  children  she 
9 


9S  MARKS    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

feared  would  be  marked,  but  the  one  that  was  mal- 
formed, she  did  not  fear  would  be.  So  it  seems  that 
the  mere  FEARS  of  mothers  that  their  children  will  be 
marked,  do  not  affect  the  matter,  or  rather,  mothers 
seldom  mark  those  they  fear  they  shall. 

A    CAT    MARK. 

The  following  comes  so  fully  authenticated,  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  of  its  truth.  Magnetism  will  explain  it : 
see  the  theory  and  facts  adduced  in  this  section. 

A  Mrs. ,  living  in  H.,Vt.,  loved  a  cat  very  much, 

and  the  cat  reciprocated  this  attachment.  That  is,  one 
had  MAGNETIZED  the  other.  She  lived  in  a  house  with  an 
old  woman  who  disliked  the  cat,  and  would  frequently 
cuff  it  off  the  table,  and  out  of  the  way.  Many  a  family 
quarrel  was  occasioned  by  one  liking  and  the  other  hating 
this  cat.  At  length  she  moved  away,  but  the  poor  cat 
was  not  taken.  Her  husband  went  back  for  the  balance 
of  their  things,  and  she  charged  him  over  and  over  again, 
and  with  great  earnestness,  to  bring  the  favorite  CAT. 
The  old  woman  told  the  husband  that  the  cat  was  sick 
and  pining,  and  refused  to  eat,  and  advised  him  to  kill  it. 
Finally,  he  took  it  out  behind  the  barn,  and  beat  out  its 
brains.  On  going  home,  his  wife,  the  first  thing,  accused 
him  of  having  KILLED  THE  CAT.  He  denied  it  repeatedly 
and  positively,  and  she  as  positively  asserted  that  he  had 
killed  it,  and  thrown  it  out  back  of  the  barn  ;  for,  said 
she,  "  I  FELT  THE  BLOWS,  and  SAW  the  mangled  cat  thrown 
out  behind  the  BARN,"  and  took  on  terribly  after  her  fa- 
vorite cat,  so  as  to  be  almost  beside  herself.  Her  child» 
which  she  carried  at  the  time,  when  born,  resembled  a 
cat  in  the  looks  of  its  head,  with  its  brains  knocked  out, 
or  head  beat  in,  and  died  in  a  short  time. 


THE    MASHED    HEAD. 


09 


THE    MASHED    HEAD. 


The  accompanying  engraving  was  drawn  from  a 
plaster  cast  of  a  deformed  child,  born  in  Lowell — also 
reported  by  Dr.  Curtis — the  mother  of  which,  some 
months  before  its  birth,  was  terribly  frightened  by  see- 

erh  !  . 


THE    MASHED    HEAD. 


ing  her  only  son  brought  in  with  the  back  and  top  part 
of  his  head  crushed,  as  she  supposed  at  first  sight,  by 
being  run  over  by  a  loaded  cart;  yet  it  proved  that  only 
the  scalp  was  torn  off. 

Dr.  Chapin  delivered  a  woman  in  Abington,  Mass.,  of 


100  MARKS    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

a  malformation,  resembling  a  hideous  idol  which  she  saw 
at  his  house.  He  has  it  preserved  in  spirits,  along  with 
other  malformations,  also  caused  by  maternal  frights. 

DUMBNESS. 

In  1847,  I  visited  a  family,  in  which  was  a  boy  and 
girl  that  could  not  speak  plainly.  The  boy  was  the 
worst,  and  was  underwitted.  Their  mother  said,  that 
while  carrying  him,  the  daughter,  who  had  before  talked 
plainly,  was  taken  with  the  scarlet  fever,  that  destroy- 
ed her  speech,  which  aggrieved  her  exceedingly.  This 
affection  of  her  girl,  by  affecting  the  mother's  mind,  in- 
capacitated her  boy  from  talking. 

HANKERING    AFTER    GIN. 

Mrs.  K.,  of  Cohocton,  N.  Y.,  while  carrying  a  child, 
longed  for  gin,  but  could  not  obtain  it.  This  child  cried 
almost  incessantly  for  six  weeks,  as  if  in  perfect  misery. 
Nothing  afforded  relief  till  gin  was  given  it,  which  it 
clutched  eagerly,  and  drank  with  perfect  greediness, 
after  which  it  stopped  its  crying,  and  from  being  a  most 
miserable  object,  become  healthy. 

Every  close  observer  will  meet  like  cases  every  where, 
and  among  all  classes,  though  most  frequently  among 
the  rich,  probably  because  their  mothers  were  ren- 
dered the  more  susceptible  by  being  nervous.  Some 
more  recent  medical  authors  have  openly  avowed  this 
doctrine,  and  Dr.  J.  V.  C.  Smith,  the  able  editor  of  the 
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  a  liberal  and 
highly  scientific  medical  work,  avowed  it  in  a  conversa- 
tion with  the  author,  and  cited  cases  to  prove  it. 

But  there  is  really  no  end  tc  facts  of  this  class — incon 


EXPLANATION.  101 

testible,  irresistible  facts — establishing  the  great  principle 
already  laid  down  that  the  state  of  the  mother's  mind 
affects  the  child's  form  of  body,  even  far  enough  to  pro- 
duce marks,  malformations,  and  monstrosities. 

But  it  is  neither  necessary  or  desirable  to  multiply 
facts  of  this  kind,  especially  since  they  are  so  numerous 
and  palpable,  that  those  already  given  will,  doubtless, 
suggest  analagous  ones  to  every  reader.  And  the  more 
so,  as  the  policy  of  this  work  is  not  to  swell  its  pages 
with  all  the  facts  that  might  be  collected  on  every  point—- 
facts that  scores  of  volumes  could  not  contain — but  to 
state  its  doctrines  clearly,  and  bring  forward  a  few 
cases  as  illustrations  mainly,  and  of  suuh  a  character, 
that  the  reader  will  be  able  to  recall  many  other  similar 
ones  as  having  occurred  within  his  knowledge. 

Besides,  the  belief  is  general,  and  pervades  all  classes. 
What  husband,  who  has  the  true  feelings  of  a  husband, 
but  exerts  his  utmost  energies  to  get  for  his  wife  what- 
ever she  longs  for  ;  and  who  does  not  know  that  things 
at  other  times  injurious,  if  longed  for,  are  harmless,  and 
even  beneficial !  Not  that  I  would,  by  any  means,  en- 
courage the  whims  of  pregnant  women,  or  facilitate 
their  taking  this  advantage  of  their  husbands,  but  I 
would  have  REAL  longings,  those  that  are  too  strong  to 
be  subdued  by  force  of  will,  gratified. 

EXPLANATION    .  f    THESE    MARKS. 

MAGNETFSM  furnishes  a  rationale  or  solution  of  this 
class  of  Tacts.  It  shows  that  particular  mental  natures 
assume  corresponding  material  forms.  Thus  the  tiger 
mentality  always  clothes  itself  in  the  tiger  shape,  and 
the  nearer  any  other  anirral  approaches  to  the  tiger  typa 


102  MARKS    AND    1  EFORMITIE3. 

of  mentality,  the  nearer  its  ouf.ward  form  resemlles  that 
of  this  animal.  The  monkey  tribes  approximate  to- 
ward the  human  in  mentality,  and  therefore  in  shape, 
and  the  ourang  outang  still  more  nearly  in  both.  This 
law  of  correspondence  between  shape  and  character  is 
uniform  and  perfect. 

Which,  then,  governs?  Do  given  mentalities  take  to 
themselves  their  respective  physical  forms,  or  do  these 
forms  control  the  characters?  Does  matter  govern 
mind,  or  mind  matter?  To  argue  this  point  here  would 
be  out  of  place ;  but  my  own  conclusion,  based  on  ex- 
tensive observation,  comparison,  and  reflection,  is,  that 
the  mental  character  of  every  thing — vegetable,  animal, 
and  human — determines  its  shape.  That  is,  specific 
mentalities  take  on  each  its  respective  bodily  form. 
Consequently,  if  you  could  infnse  the  mentality  of  the 
elephant  into  an  embryo  swine,  its  shape  would  propor- 
tionally depart  from  that  of  the  swine,  and  approximate 
toward  that  of  the  elephant. 

An  illustrative  fact.  An  elephant  was  walking 
through  a  street  in  which  was  a  sow  with  pig,  which 
he  hit  a  slight  rap  with  his  trunk  to  remove  her.  One 
of  her  pigs  can  now  be  seen  in  the  medical  college  in 
Albany,  preserved  in  spirits,  having  its  snout  elongated 
and  gristly,  and  formed  like  the  trunk  of  an  elephant, 
and  its  feet  and  other  parts  approximating  toward  the 
elephant  shape.  Other  like  specimens  of  brute  malform- 
ation are  to  be  seen  in  other  places,  and  at  least  estab- 
lish the  FACT  of  such  malformation. 

I  reason  on  this  matter  thus:  The  elephant  ifnparted 
a  powerful  charge  of  his  magnetism  to  this  sow.  This 
elephant  MAC.NETISM  or  mentality,  she  passed  off  to  her 
embryo  pig,  whi:h  caused  it  to  assume  the  elephant 


EXPLANATION.  103 

SHAPE,  just  as  tigei  magnetism  or  mentality  causes  it  to 
assume  a  tiger  shape,  or  human  mentality  clothes  itself 
in  human  form. 

Another  fact  reported  to  the  author,  by  a  woman  of 
superior  natural  abilities,  and  an  eye-witness  of  the  fact, 
so  that  no  doubt  of  its  authenticity  need  be  entertained: 
A  woman,  about  four  months  advanced,  was  on  a  visit 
to  her  native  town,  on  the  northern  shore  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  stopped  at  her  father's.  A  fishing  excursion,  in  a 
row-boat,  and  in  the  night,  was  proposed,  and  which 
she  was  persuaded  to  join.  The  fish  were  to  be  caught 
with  a  spear,  while  asleep  in  the  water,  and  were  dis- 
covered by  means  of  a  torch.  The  kind  of  fish  caught, 
have  a  gristly  snout  that  turns  upward  and  backward, 
thus  forming  a  kind  of  hook,  and  often  weighs  twenty 
pounds.  She  took  a  seat  in  the  middle  of  the  boat.  A 
large  fish,  probably  frightened,  leaped  from  the  water 
clear  over  the  boat,  and  right  before  her  face,  uttering, 
as  it  passed,  a  kind  of  snort  or  wheeze  peculiar  to  the 
fish  when  it  jumps  out  of  the  water  or  is  captured. 
This  frightened  her  terribly ;  so  as  actually  to  sicken 
her  for  several  days.  Her  progeny,  when  born,  proved 
to  be  a  monster,  half  fish  and  half  human,  without  a 
mouth,  but  having  a  nasal  appendage  like  that  of  the 
fish  alluded  to  above.  Its  lower  extremity  resembled 
that  of  a  fish,  and  every  few  minutes  it  would  spring 
and  throw  itself  up  a  foot  or  more  from  its  pillow,  and 
at  the  same  time  utter  the  same  noise  made  by  the  kind 
of  fish  alluded  to.  Having  no  mouth,  of  course  it  could 
not  be  fed,  and  lived  only  about  twenty-four  hours. 
Being  a  monster,  it  was  refused  a  Christian  burial,  and 
was  interred  in  the  corner  of  a  field. 

Now  as  animals  can  n  agnetize  men    and  men  an> 


104  MARK3    AND    DEFORMITIES. 

mals,  dia  not  this  fish  magnetize  the  woman,  and  there- 
by impart  to  her  of  its  fish  magnetism,  which  she,  of 
course,  imparted  to  her  embryo,  thus  causing  it  to  as- 
sume a  part  of  the  magnetism,  that  is,  of  the  NATURE  of 
tne  fish,  ai.d  consequently  of  its  form  of  body? 

And  this  theory  is  strengthened  by  the  fact,  that  the 
magnetizer  imparts  of  his  magnetism  to  the  magnetized, 
and  the  latter  is  impregnated  with  that  nature.  Thus, 
being  magnetized  by  one  who  has  a  headache,  tooth- 
ache, or  rheumatic  affection,  will  cause  the  magnetizer 
to  lose  his  headache,  toothache,  etc.,  and  the  magnet- 
ized to  receive  them.  Hence,  being  magnetized  by  a 
well  person,  generally  invigorates  the  magnetized,  but 
frequently  exhausts  the  operator.*  Being  magnetized 
by  an  intellectual  person  brightens  up  the  ideas  and 
quickens  the  flow  of  thought ;  but  being  magnetized 
by  a  slow,  or  an  easy,  or  a  good,  or  a  bad  person,  makes 
the  magnetized  slow,  or  easy,  or  good,  or  bad.  That 
is,  the  one  magnetized,  receives  of  the  mental  and  phy- 
sical nature  of  the  magnetiz_er. 

This  theory  is  introduced,  not  because  it  is  fully  adopt- 
ed, but  because  it  explains  these  and  kindred  admitted 
facts  better  than  any  other,  and  shows  that  the  embryo 
might  be  so  related  to  the  mother  as  to  receive  marks 
and  deformities  from  her  mental  and  physical  conditions, 
But,  be  it  true  or  false,  the  point  at  issue,  namely,  that 
marks  and  deformities  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  and 
caused  by  the  mother's  state  of  mind,  cannot  well  be 
doubted.  Nor  do  physicians  who  dispute  this  doctrine, 
pretend  to  deny  its  facts.  They  are  compelled  to  admit 
them,  and  yet  they  evade  them  by  saying  that  they  are 
anatomically  impossible. 

*  See  "  Fascination  or  the  Philosophy  af  Charming." 


EXPLANATION.  lOo 

"But,"  say  the  doctors,  "this  point  being  admitted, 
still,  its  promulgation  will  render  all  our  women  miser- 
able merely  with  fright,  fearing  lest  any  unusual  thing 
they  see  should  mark  their  children.  Better  keep  them 
in  ignorance  of  this  principle,  and  deny  it  stoutly,  so  as 
to  quiet  their  fears."  Rather  teK  women  the  facts  of 
the  case,  and  let  KNOWLEDGE  put  them  on  their  guard. 
Properly  to  fortify  mothers  on  this  point,  is  to  spread 
light,  so  that  they  may  know  what  to  do,  and  what  to 
expect.  Besides,  to  make  women  believe  that  these 
things  do  not  mark  their  children,  is  utterly  impossible; 
for  the  whole  community,  high  and  low,  intelligent  and 
ignorant,  are  compelled  either  to  believe  in  the  doctrine, 
or  else  deny  the  evidence  of  their  own  senses — to  dis- 
believe what  they  see  and  feel.  Hence,  since  this  fear 
cannot  be  prevented,  let  it  be  properly  directed.  Let 
them  know  what  conditions  will  prevent  their  feelings 
from  marking  their  children,  and  how  to  avoid  feelings 
likely  to  do  injury. 

But,  by  another  method  still,  should  I  advise  mothers 
to  avoid  these  evil  consequences — namely,  by  STRENGTH- 
ENING THEIR  NERVOUS  SYSTEMS  by  air,  exercise,  and  pre- 
serving and  invigorating  their  health.  It  is  not  the  strong, 
healthy,  and  robust  that  mark  their  children,  but  the  weak- 
ly, the  nervous,  and  those  easily  impressed,  that  is,  easily 
magnetized.  But,  if  our  women  would  follow  the  advice 
given  in  preceding  sections,  so  as  to  keep  up  a  full  tide 
of  health  and  vigor,  they  would  seldom  mark  their 
children,  because  they  themselves  would  seldom  bo 
impressed  with  these  foreign  influences,  but  would  gen« 
erally  resist  them. 


106     THE  MOTHER'S  MENTALITY  CONTROLS  THE  CHILD'S 


SECTION  III. 

NILUENCE  OF  THE  VARIOUS  STATES  OF  MATERNAL  MEN 
TALITY,  OR  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHARACTER  OF  OFFSPRING. 

431.     THE  CHILD'S  MENTALITY  DERIVED  DIRECTLY  FROM  ITS 
MOTHER'S. 

But,  however  much  may  depend  on  the  PHYSICAL 
nutrition  of  the  embryo,  more  depends  upon  its  being 
well  supplied  with  food,  for  the  development  of  its 
MIND.  All  that  the  child  gets,  it  obtains  from  its  mo- 
ther418. And  as  all  its  material  for  the  formation  of 
bone,  flesh,  and  organ,  must  be  furnished  directly  by 
her,  so  all  the  materials  for  the  formation  of  nerve  and 
brain  must  come  from  this  same  maternal  source.  In 
fact,  she  must  supply  its  entire  MENTALITY,  as  well  as 
its  entire  anatomy. 

-  Then,  however  important  that  she  furnish  it  with 
vitality407,  is  it  less  so  that  she  supply  the  materials  for 
intellect  and  soul  ?  And  as  she  cannot  supply  the  for- 
mer unless  she  possesses  them  herself,  can  she  the  lat- 
ter? Can  she  whose  intellect  is  dull,  and  whose  feelings 
are  obtuse,  bear  smart,  strong-minded  children  ?  Be  it 
even  that  the  father  is  highly  mental,  and  stamps  his 
cerebral  image  upon  them,  that  mentality  must  be  FED 
from  day  to  day  with  its  appropriate  food,  or  it  will 
become  nearly  starved  before  it  is  born.  Hence  it 
requires  a  superior  mentality  in  BOTH  parents  to  pro 
duce  highly-endowed  offspf'zg. 


ITS    PHILOSOPHY.  107 

But  to  canvass  this  whole  subject,  of  the  various 
states  of  the  mother's  mentality  on  that  of  offspring,  in 
the  light  of  FACTS — yet,  to  attempt  to  PROVE  this  point, 
seems  to  be  superfluous  ;  for  who  that  has  observed  or 
thought  upon  this  subject  but  admits  it — but  mainly  to 
IMPRESS  IT  DEEPLY  upon  mothers — to  brand  into  their 
inmost  souls  an  ever-present  consciousness,  that  their 
states  of  mind  and  feeling,  while  carrying  their  children, 
will  be  faithfully  daguerreotyped,  in  all  their  shades  and 
phases,  upon  those  children,  AND  REMAIN  THERE  FOR- 
EVER, growing  clearer  and  deeper  as  their  existence 
progresses. 

The  real  philosophy  of  this  whole  matter,  is  this — 
the  blood  is  the  grand  porter  of  the  entire  system.  All 
the  materials  for  forming  the  embryo,  bones,  muscles, 
organs,  nerves,  and  brain,  are  derived  directly  from  the 
mother's  blood.  And  since  the  foetal  blood  is  secreted 
directly  from  the  heart's  blood  of  the  mother,  of  course 
all  the  ever-varying  states  of  her  blood  enter  into  the 
formation  and  organic  constitution  of  the  child's  body 
and  brain.  So,  too,  all  the  mother's  mental  states  affect 
her  own  system  throughout.  The  brain  is  the  organ  of 
the  body  quite  as  much  as  of  the  mind.  It  generates  all 
those  influences  and  powers  which  keep  the  entire  sys- 
tem in  motion.  It  holds  perfect  control  over  the  entire 
body.  All  its  states  ramify  throughout  the  whole  sys- 
tem. A  disordered  state  of  the  mind  does  far  more  to 
disease  the  body,  than  that  of  the  body  the  mind,  and 
remedial  agents  applied  to  the  mind  are  far  more  potent 
than  those  administered  to  the  body  merely.  The  ab- 
solute tyranny  with  which  all  the  states  of  the  mind 
lord  it  over  heart,  lungs,  stomach,  muscles,  nerves — in 
short,  the  whole  body — to  break  down  and  build  up— 


108       THE  MOTHER'S  MIND  CONTROLS  THE  CHILD'S. 

to  expel  disease  and  to  invite  it — to  promote  and  retard 
digestion,  circulation,  etc. — to  drive  off  fatigue  or  induce 
it — to  even  protract  life  and  to  cut  it  short — is  beyond 
computation.  This  great  practical  truth — how  little  is 
it  realized  ! 

Now  this  law  applies  with  the  same  power  to  the 
body  of  the  embryo,  as  it  does  to  that  of  its  mother, 
and  to  its  brain  and  nerves  as  to  hers. 

Does  it  not  seem  reasonable — is  it  not  accordant 
with  all  we  know,  as  appertaining  to  this  subject — that 
in  exactly  that  proportion  in  which  the  mentality  as  a 
whole,  and  each  of  the  faculties  in  particular,  abound  in 
the  mother,  will  they  be  woven  into  the  texture  and 
tone  of  the  child's  constitution  ?  As  plants  obtain  from 
the  soil  just  those  qualities  which  abound  in  the  latter, 
so,  if  the  mother,  while  carrying  one  child,  has  her 
Combativeness  unusually  excited,  that  child  will  take  on 
most  of  the  combative  spirit,  because  it  abounded  most 
in  the  mother  at  this  particular  period — no  matter 
whether  it  be  NATURALLY  large  or  small  in  her  ;  but  if, 
•while  carrying  another,  Benevolence  should  be  power- 
fully wrought  up,  it  will  take  on  a  proportionate  quan- 
tity of  goodness  and  humanity  :  and  thus  of  the  mother's 
intellect,  or  wit,  or  fears,  or  devotion,  or  acquisitive,  or 
vain,  or  amiable,  or  any  other  temporary  characteris- 
tics. In  short,  while  the  parentage — that  is,  the  stamp- 
ing of  the  original  impress  of  life — may  be  called  the 
warp  of  the  child's  physical  and  mental  constitution, 
the  mother's  states  of  mind  and  body,  during  carriage, 
are  the  woof  or  filling  of  that  warp,  and  variegates  its 
color,  texture,  tone,  durability,  and  primitive  constitu- 
tion, in  accordance  with  itself.  This  is  the  inquiry  to 
Which  we  now  addrest  ourselves. 


HAGER    AND    1SHMAEL.  109 


HAGAR    AND    JSHMAEL. 

The  stale  of  Hagar's  mind  while  carrying  Ishmael, 
and  his  hating  every  body,  and  being  so  hateful,  as  well 
as  the  ugliness  and  ferocity  of  the  Ishmaelites,  through- 
out the  whole  history  of  that  fighting  nation,  is  in  point, 
and  by  it  the  Bible  undoubtedly  designed  practically 
and  powerfully  to  enforce  this  law. 

"  And  when  Sarai  dealt  hardly  with  Hagar,  she  fled 
from  her  face.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  found  her 
by  a  fountain  of  water  in  the  wilderness,  and  said  unto 
her,  Thou  shalt  bear  a  son,  and  he  will  be  a  wild  man  ; 
his  hand  will  be  against  every  man,  and  every  man's 
hand  against  him." — GEN.  xvi. 

Mark — Hagar  became  insolent,  because  likely  to  be- 
come a  mother,  and  Sarai  became  jealous  :  so  that  a 
most  desperate  and  perpetual  quarrel  sprang  up  be- 
tweeu  them,  till  finally  Sarai  became  outrageous,  and 
drove  Hagar  out  into  the  wilderness  to  starve,  and  this 
wiLD-erness  babe  was  "  WILD,"  and  both  hated  and  was 
hated  of  every  body — the  very  states  of  the  mother's 
mind  giving  direction  and  character  to  the  child. 

What  historical  fact  can  be  stronger,  or  more  in 
point  ?  Why  should  so  succinct  a  history  as  the  Bible 
was  there  giving,  stop  to  detail  minutely  this  case,  un- 
less it  designed  thereby  to  teach  this  identical  moral 
truth,  this  great  practical  law  of  the  maternal  rela- 
tions we  are  endeavoring  to  enforce  ?  Does  the  Bible 
waste  its  pages  on  mere  narratives,  devoid  of  moral 
bearing?  And  is  it  not  surprising  that  its  pretended 
expounders  never  preach  from  this  text,  or  enforce  this 
truth  ?  Do  they  proclaim  the  WHOLE  counsel  cf  God  ? 
Could  they  disseminate  more  momentous  truths  ? 
1G 


110      THE  MOTHER'S  MIND  CONTROI/S  THE  CHILD'S. 


SAMUEL    AND    HIS    MOTHER. 


Take  .he  mother  of  Samuel  as  an  opposite  example. 
Her  mind  was  in  a  peculiarly  devout  frame  all  the  time 
she  was  carrying  him,  and  had  his  exalted  piety  nothing 
to  do  with  her  devout  state  of  mind  ?  Was  it  not  this 
very  maternal  devotion  which  sanctified  him  "  FROM  HIS 
MOTHER'S  WOMB  ?"  Did  the  Bible  mean  nothing  when  i* 
put  this  and  that  so  nearly  together  ?  Did  it  not  intend 
to  relate  them  by  cause  and  effect  ?  Where  have  been 
the  wits  of  Bible  commentators,  great  and  small — book 
commentators  and  pulpit  commentators,  and  the  end- 
less army,  in  all  ages,  of  Bible  defenders  and  expound- 
ers— that  they  have  not  seen  and  reiterated  this  mighty 
truth,  worth  more  than  ship-loads  of  their  old  sermons 
and  new  ones,  their  big  commentaries  and  little  ones, 
and  all  their  sectarian  dogmatism  to  boot,  and  a  thou- 
sand-fold better  calculated  to  regenerate  and  save  man- 
kind, and  make  them  better  by  NATURE,  so  that  they 
would  have  less  "original  sin"  in  them  to  be  beat  out  of 
them  by  preaching,  and  be  more  ready  recipients  of  al. 
religious  impressions  ? 

MARY    AND    CHRIST. 

And  as  if  this  was  not  enough,  it  caps  the  climax  by 
a  minute  account  of  Mary's  happy  frame  of  body  and 
holy  state  of  mind,  all  along  before  the  birth  of  Christ. 
She  was  "  in  the  hill  country,"  quaffing  copiously  the  in- 
vigorating breezes  of  Judea's  balmy  clime — telling  her 
friends  how  happy  her  vision  had  made  her — and  full  of 
heavenly  joy  and  spiritual  exaltation.  "  My  soul  doth 
magnify  the  Lord,  and  rejoice  in  God  my  Saviour  !"  is 


CHRIST — 30NAPARTE.  Ill 

her  rapturous  exultation.  Read  Luke's  account  of  this 
matter,  and  especially  her  song.  Would  a  cross,  or 
diseased  mother,  have  b«»en  as  well  fitted  to  give  birth 
to  this  embodiment  of  divine  goodness  and  love  ?  Does 
holiness  of  soul  and  sweetness  of  temper,  in  the  mother 
during  carriage,  have  no  influence  in  moulding  her  pro- 
spective infant  into  a  state  of  loveliness  and  goodness, 
and  her  warring  passions  leave  no  Satanic  marks  upon 
its  then  forming  mirror  ?  Out  upon  that  clerical  stu- 
pidity which  has  failed  to  perceive  this  Bible  truth,  or 
else  upon  that  mealy-mouthed  squeamishness  which  has 
thus  far  shrunk  from  proclaiming  it.  Episcopalians 
pray  for  "  all  women  in  the  perils  of  childbirth  ;"  then 
why  not  preach  to  them  on  the  responsibilities  of  child- 
bearing  ?  I  hate  this  pretending  to  teach  man's  whole 
moral  duty,  yet  leaving  out  such  cardinal  and  moment- 
ous obligations  ;  for  what  one  of  them  ever  opens  his 
dumb-dog  mouth  on  this  point  ?  But  leaving  them  to 
glory  in  their  shame,  let  us  look  to  profane  history. 

BONAPARTE'S  FCETAL  HISTORY. 

Who  was  the  greatest  general  of  modern  times  ? 
Who  chose  martial  life  from  innate  love  of  it,  and  at 
twenty-three  planned  so  wisely,  and  fought  so  bravely, 
as  to  be  lifted  over  the  heads  of  tried  veterans,  to  sway 
the  mighty  armies  of  war-loving  France  ?  AND  WHAT 

WAS    THE    STATE    OP    HIS    MOTHER'S    MIND    ALL    THE    WHILE 

SHE  WAS  CARRYING  HIM  ?  On  horseback,  exercising 
queenly  power  over  her  spirited  charger  and  the  sub- 
ordinates of  her  husband,  and  COMMINGLING  WITH  THE 
ARMY.  Had  her  state  of  mind  nothing  to  do  with  his 
"  ruling  passion,  strong  in  death  ?" 


THE  MOTHER'S  MIND  CONTROLS  THE  CHILD'S. 


JAMES    I. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  wl.;le  carrying  that  timid  foo. 
of  a  monarch,  saw  the  wild  ragings  of  infuriated  De« 
structiveness  draw  the  naked  steel,  and  plunge  it 
through  its  falling  victim.  Oh,  horrid  sight  !  One 
of  her  own  friends,  weltering  in  his  gurgling  blood, 
gasps  and  dies  in  her  palace,  in  her  sight,  while  preg- 
nant !  And  her  son — a  paragon  of  conflicting  emotions 
— trembling  and  fainting  at  even  the  sight  of  an  un- 
drawn sword,  timid  as  a  hare,  a  prey  to  mere  whims, 
yet  tyrannical  and  vindictive.  Did  her  fright  have  no 
hand  in  causing  his  timidity  ? 

A    TIMID    FRIEND    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

Jn  1 806,  Mr.  Purrington,  near  Augusta,  Me.,  committed 
the  most  shocking  murder  on  his  wife  and  nine  children, 
by  beating  out,  with  an  axe,  the  brains  of  all  but  one 
boy,  into  whose  back  he  struck  the  axe  while  escaping, 
and  completing  the  tragedy  by  cutting  his  own  throat 
with  the  razor  a  8*3.  This,  of  course,  terribly  alarmed 
all  the  women  in  the  neighborhood,  for  fear  their  hus- 
bands might  commit  a  similar  outrage  upon  them  :  and 
the  mother  of  a  friend  of  mine,  suffered  every  thing 
from  fear  lest  she  should  be  murdered,  and  this  friend, 
born  six  months  after,  has  suffered  more,  she  says,  than 
tongue  can  describe,  from  fear  of  being  murdered  ;  and 
now,  though  nearly  forty,  and  compelled  by  her  busi- 
ness— a  seamstress — to  go  from  house  to  house,  she  can 
hardly  endure  to  sleep  alone,  lays  and  thinks  by  the 
hour  together  how  she  shall  escape  if  attacked,  and  is 
smarted  by  the  least  noise,  so  as  to  be  obliged  to  get  up 


MISCELLANEOUS    CASES.  113 

and  go  down  stairs,  and  kindle  the  fire.  She  says  she 
has  a  friend,  born  in  the  same  place,  and  a  month  or 
two  younger,  who  is  afflicted  by  the  same  foolish  fear, 
and  whose  mother  suffered  similarly  from  the  same 
cause. 

The  brother  of  a  friend  of  mine  was  very  much 
afraid  of  being  killed,  and  when  crazy,  he  often  ex- 
claimed, "  Oh,  don't  kill  me !  don't !"  witl.  as  much 
anxiety  as  if  he  were  about  to  be  murdered.  His  fathei 
was  a  notorious  drunkard,  and  when 'drunk,  would  beat 
and  abuse  his  wife,  and  try  to  kill  her.  Once  he  drew 
a  large  knife  on  her,  and  when  she  fled,  he  followed  her 
up  into  the  garret,  where  she  hid  herself  among  the 
rubbish,  so  as  barely  to  escape  with  her  life.  While 
thus  standing  in  continual  fear  of  being  killed,  this  son 
was  born  ;  and  this  same  fear  of  being  killed  always 
haunted  and  tormented  him,  till  he  finally  took  his  own 
life. 

In  Charlestown,  Mass.,  I  saw  an  idiotic  girl,  ren- 
dered such  by  her  mother's  having  a  severe  and  long- 
continued  fever,  by  which  she  was  confined  some  three 
months  to  her  bed,  which  terminated  only  by  the  birth 
of  her  child.  In  the  same  time,  she  buried  two  children 
in  one  grave,  and  had  other  troubles,  which  she  said 
rendered  her  COMPLETELY  MISERABLE. 

While  lecturing  in  Nantucket,  in  1844,  an  anxious 
mother  brought  a  whimpering  daughter  to  me  for  pro- 
fessional examination  and  advice.  The  first  error  I 
pointed  out,  though  it  was  but  slight,  she  burst  into 
a  flood  of  tears,  and  cried  and  kept  crying,  though  six- 
teen years  old,  so  that  I  was  compelled  to  suspend  the 
examination.  I  found  almost  no  Combativeness,  Destruc- 
tiveness,  Self-Esteam,  or  Firmness,  and  perfect  pusillani- 
10* 


114       THE  MOTHER'S  MIND  CONTROLS  THE  CHILD  s. 

mity  and  inefficiency,  along  with  the  most  exquisite  sus 
ceptibilities,  and  extreme  Veneration  and  Spirituality. 
Yet  the  mother  had  great  Firmness,  and  full  Combative- 
ness  and  Destructiveness.  The  child  was  totally  unlike 
her  mother,  yet  I  knew  she  could  not  take  her  tame- 
ness  from  her  father  HS31;  so  that  I  saw  it  must  have 
come  from  her  state  during  carriage,  and  requested  her 
sometime  to  enlighten  me  on  this  point,  and  bring  her 
daughter,  as  I  supposed  facts  calculated  to  do  her  good 
would  be  elicited.  Her  sad  story  was  to  the  effect  that, 
well  off  and  genteelly  educated,  she  married,  against  the 
will  of  parents  and  remonstrances  of  all,  one  whom  she 
supposed  to  be  a  good  man ;  that  she  was  married  at 
his  father's,  and  that,  after  packing  and  locking  her 
trunk,  and  putting  her  key  in  her  pocket,  she  dressed  for 
the  wedding,  leaving  the  dress  which  contained  the  key 
behind ;  that  after  the  wedding,  on  finding  her  trunk 
locked  and  key  gone,  she  was  for  telling  her  husband 
but  his  brother  and  sister  seemed  very  desirous  that  she 
should  not,'  and  broke  open  the  trunk  for  her,  which 
astonished  her ;  that  the  next  morning  he  ordered  her 
up,  and  because  she  did  not  mind  instantly,  broke  out 
upon  her  in  a  fit  of  rage  and  abuse ;  that  then  the  dread- 
ful reality  burst  suddenly  and  fully  upon  her  mind,  and 
she  gave  up  in  despair ;  that,  being  at  his  father's,  who 
was  wealthy,  and  having  nothing  to  direct'  her  mind, 
she  gave  completely  up  to  soul-crushing  despair,  refused 
to  see  any  of  her  old  friends,  because  so  ashamed  of  her 
blind  obstinacy,  and  did  nothing  but  read  the  Bible  and 
cry  most  of  the  time  from  morning  to  night,  day  after 
day,  for  one  whole  year,  till  this  child  was  born ;  that, 
when  a  babe,  the  least  unpleasant  word  or  look  would 
make  hei  cry  piteously  for  hours  together ;  that,  when 


MRS.    D.'s  CHILDREN'.  115 

older,  \f  spoken  sharply  to  in  the  morning,  she  would 
go  away  by  heiself  and  sob  and  cry,  heart-broken,  all 
day  long,  and  was  always  pensive,  yet  learned  to  read 
in  the  Bible  at  five  years  of  age,  and  was  so  taken  up  at 
this  infantile  age  with  this  book  that  she  cared  for  no 
other.  She  could  not  sleep  without  the  Bible  under  her 
pillow,  or  the  Testament  clasped  to  her  breast.  Behold 
the  perfect  contrast  between  her  natural  disposition  and 
that  of  both  parents,  which  shows  that  it  could  not  be 
paientage  ;  but  its  perfect  accordance  with  the  state  of 
her  mother's  mind  during  pregnancy,  shows  that  it  was 

Wholly   MATERNAL. 

Since  then  I  have  observed  scores  of  cases  in  which 
mothers,  naturally  forcible,  but  whose  spirits  were 
crushed  at  this  period,  bore  children  with  weak  Com- 
bativeness,  Destructiveness,  and  Firmness.  These  facul- 
ties were  crushed  in  the  mother,  by  the  tyranny  of  the 
husband,  or  some  other  cause,  so  that,  being  dormant, 
they  were  but  feebly  represented  in  the  child.  They 
were  weak  in  the  mother's  mind  at  this  period,  though 
strong  by  nature,  and  this  left  them  as  weak  in  the 
children  as  though  they  were  naturally  small  in  the 
mothers.  Yet  if  these  faculties  had  been  excited  in 
these  mothers  during  their  pregnancy,  th&v  would  have 
abounded  in  the  children. 

MRS.    D.    AND    HER    CHILDREN. 

Mrs.  D.  remarked,  for  the  thousandth  time,  man) 
years  ago,  that  she  could  trace  minutely,  in  the  great 
diversities  of  character  and  disposition  of  her  numerous 
children,  just  those  very  states  of  mind  she  was  in  while 
bearing  them.  She  was  happy  while  bearing  her  first 


116  MATERNAL    STATES    OF    MIND, 

child,  and  it  is  peculiarly  beautiful  and  amiabk.  But 
her  husband  began  to  drink,  and  this  overclouded  her 
sky,  and  awakened  her  displeasure,  and  her  next  child 
corresponds  to  this  slate  of  her  mind.  Then  came  pov- 
erty, and  that  severe  buffeting  of  the  waves  of  adver- 
sity, which  called  out  all  her  force-imparting  and  unami- 
able  traits :  and  this  is  the  character  of  those  born 
during  this  sad  period — and  thus  of  her  other  changes — 
so  that  she  reads  in  their  characters  the  history  of  her 
life  and  feelings  while  carrying  each  one. 

A    HALF-STARVED,    DESPAIRING   MOTHER. 

A  husband  and  wife  moved  to  Sharon,  near  Lake 
George,  while  it  remained  an  unbroken  forest.  Having 
no  neighbors,  they  got  out  of  provisions  the  first  year  ; 
and  before  they  could  raise  any,  they  could  barely 
obtain  sufficient  sustenance  to  support  life,  and  that  by 
eating  roots,  boiling  bark,  etc.  Their  child,  born  under 
these  circumstances,  and  now  living,  is  the  very  picture 
of  despair — poor,  dyspeptic,  hypoy,  and  feeble  both  in 
mind  'and  body.  But  they  put  in  a  large  crop  of  wheat, 
which  the  influx  of  emigration  enabled  them  to  sell  at 
great  prices,  so  that  they  had  abundance,  and  cleared 
some  $3000  the  second  year — every  thing  going  pros- 
perously. Their  next  child,  born  under  these  auspicious 
circumstances,  is  a  fine,  manly,  strong,  noble-looking, 
energetic,  and  highly-talented  man,  and  a  real  steam- 
engine  for  driving  through  whatever  he  undertakes. 
His  mother  told  him  the  cause  of  his  brother's  debility 
and  charged  him  to  let  him  want  for  nothing. 


AS    MOULDING    THAT    OF    CFFSPRING.  117 

THE    SON    WHO    COULD    NEVER    FACE    HIS    FATHER. 

About  1798,  Hezekiah  B.,  of  H.,  Vt.,  a  very  pas- 
sionate, blustering  man,  and  VERY  angry,  when  angry, 
but  soon  over,  becoming  deeply  exasperated  by  some- 
thing his  wife  had  done,  came  into  the  house  at  a  door 
opposite  to  where  his  wife  was  kneading  bread — her 
back  being  toward  the  door — and  emptied  a  most  abu- 
sive vial  of  wrath  and  sputter  upon  his  wife,  who,  turn- 
ing round  to  reply,  was  so  overcome  by  her  feelings, 
that  she  choked  for  utterance ;  and  for  one  hour  she 
kept  kneading  that  bread,  so  stifled  by  the  overflow  of 
her  feelings  that  she  could  not  speak  ;  her  back,  mean- 
while, being  turned  toward  the  door  and  FROM  her  hus- 
band. Three  months  afterward  her  son  Solomon  was 
born  ;  and  though  he  has  always  lived  in  the  house,  and 
worked  on  the  farm  with  his  father,  and  has  a  wife  and 
child  there,  yet,  till  he  was  thirty-five  years  old,  he  never 
spoke  the  first  word  to  him.  Finally,  one  day,  being  at 
work  in  the  field  with  him,  and  wanting  very  much  to 
ask  him  a  question,  he  involuntarily  came  up  with  his 
face  toward  his  father,  and  turning  short  around,  so  as 
to  present  his  BACK  to  him,  and  then  walking  from  his 
father,  he  made  out  to  speak  to  him  for  the  first  time  in 
his  life.  And  now,  whenever  he  addresses  him,  he 
turns  his  back  to  him,  for  in  this  way  only  can  he  ad- 
dress him,  though  he  has  tried  his  utmost  all  his  life  to 
do  so  while  facing  him,  but  all  in  vain.  When  a  boy, 
he  sat  peaceably  on  his  father's  knee  only  once. 

These  miscellaneous  cases  will  serve  to  establish  the 
great  law  of  the  transfer  of  the  mother's  mentality  at 
this  period  to  her  offspring.  Both  to  warn  mothers,  at 


118  MATERNAL    STA7ES    OF    MIND 

well  as  to  enforce  this  law,  let  us  examine  a  lew  groups 
of  facts. 

A    FOOLISH    BUT    FIENDISH    SON. 

MANCHESTER,  N.  H    June  14,  1848. 

O.  S.  FOWLER — A  young  lady  who  was  an  associate 
of  my  oldest  sister,  married  an  enterprising  mechanic 
about  the  time  I  was  twelve  years  of  age.  Not  long 
after  her  marriage,  her  husband  got  into  a  collision  with 
one  of  his  apprentices  and  they  finally  fell  into  a  regular 
battle.  So  desperate  and  formidable  was  the  fight  of 
the  apprentice,  that  the  young  wife  became  alarmed  for 
the  safety  of  her  husband,  and  with  a  terrible  spirit  of 
revenge  and  fury  rushed  to  her  husband's  rescue ;  and 
she  said  afterward  that  she  hardly  knew  what  prevent- 
ed her  from  killing  him  outright.  Within  six  months 
from  that  time  she  gave  birth  to  a  male  child,  whose 
only  cry  and  roar  was  that  of  frantic  rage.  I  recollect 
to  have  heard  of  this  misfortune  at  the  time.  Some 
thirty  years  afterward  I  lectured  in  a  destitute  part  of 
the  Empire  State,  and  after  the  meeting,  in  compliance 
with  an  urgent  request,  I  spent  the  night  with  this  fam- 
ily, who  recognized  me  as  an  old  acquaintance.  The 
evening,  until  a  late  hour,  was  spent  in  tracing  the  his- 
tories of  the  two  families,  and  at  the  time  memory  did 
not  recall  her  misfortune  in  her  first  child.  In  the 
morning,  in  descending  the  staircase,  I  was  arrested  by 
the  sudden  outcry  and  frightful  snarling,  or  maddened 
yell  of  that  son.  I  stood  for  a  moment  almost  petrified 
with  horror,  but  the  memory  of  the  past  brought  relief, 
and  had  I  not  recollected  the  above  facts,  I  should  not, 
I  could  not,  have  imagined  what  it  was  that  made  such 
a  frightful  outcry.  The  idiot  had  lived  to  be  a  man 
in  size,  but  gave  no  other  demonstrations  of  intellect 


AS    AFFECTING    THAT    CF    THE    CHILD.  119 

than  this  frightful  maddened  cry.  On  coming  down 
the  mother,  with  a  downward  look,  stated  the  cenditior 
of  her  child ;  and  I  well  recollected  the  cause  to  which 
at  the  time  it  was  attributed. 

Yours  truly,  G.  W.  FINNEY. 

A    PROVOKED    MOTHER    AND   PROVOKING   CHILD. 

Mrs.  D.  rented  a  part  of  a  house  from  a  woman  \vho 
had  a  saucy,  selfish,  haughty  girl.  Assuming  a  most 
imperative,  authoritative  air,  because  her  mother  was 
landlady  and  Mrs.  D.  her  tenant,  this  girl  often  ob- 
truded into  Mrs.  D.'s  apartment,  was  insolent,  over- 
bearing, and  teased  and  tantalized  poor  Mrs.  D.'s  life 
almost  out  of  her,  and  this  many  times  a  day.  Mrs.  D. 
was  then  carrying  a  child,  which,  when  an  infant,  was 
as  cross  and  spiteful  as  a  little  witch,  and  cried  unmer- 
cifully ;  and  now  grown  up,  she  has  a  proud,  bold, 
imperious  air,  as  though  queen  of  all  around  her,  is 
ungovernable  and  violent  tempered,  torments  the  very 
life  out  of  all  those  around  her,  and  is  the  exact  coun- 
terpart of  the  girl  which  tantalized  her  mother.  Mrs. 
D.,  a  fond  mother,  has  been  so  tried  by  her  as,  though 
kind  to  her,  to  hate  her  most  thoroughly.  Mrs.  D. 
has  active  Combativeness  and  Destructiveness,  yet  a 
great  deal  of  real  goodness,  and  stamped  the  former  on 
this  daughter  more  than  on  her  son — a  sweet,  noble 
boy — because  these  feelings  were  thus  perpetually  awa- 
kened while  carrying  her,  and  thus  sent  in  that  relative 
proportion  to  the  child  in  which  they  abounded  in  the 
mother  at  this  time. 

MRS.    M'C.    AND    HER    BONAPARTE- ADMIRING    SON. 

Mrs.  M'C.  bore  a  promising  son  during  Bonaparte'i 


120  .«t      MATERNAL    STATES    OF    MIND, 

triumphal  career.  His  life  and  character  intensely 
interested  her  at  this  period — so  much  so  that  she  got 
and  read  all  the  books  she  could  find  out  of  all  the 
libraries — public,  private,  and  circulating — and  cher- 
ished a  sort  of  hobby  or  passion  for  his  character  and 
exploits. 

This  son  is  now  a  brilliant  lawyer  in  Boston,  a  splen- 
did speaker,  excessively  fond  of  the  martial,  and  a  most 
enthusiastic  admirer  of  BONAPARTE.  He  has  read  all 
he  can  hear  of  respecting  him,  has  filled  every  nook 
and  corner  of  the  house,  suitable  for  a  picture,  with  his 
likenesses,  battles,  etc.,  and  turns  all  his  conversation 
into  something  relating  to  the  hero  of  his  soul.  I  have 
this  narrative  from  the  mother's  and  sister's  lips. 

Does  it  seem  necessary  or  desirable  to  follow  out  this 
branch  of  our  subject  further  into  detail  ?  Have  we  not 
both  abundantly  PROVED  and  ENFORCED  the  maternal  law, 
that  when  the  mother's  combative  and  cross-grained 
feelings  are  habitually  provoked  while  carrying  a  child, 
it  will  infect  the  THEN-EXISTING  state  of  her  temper  ? 
But,  before  summing  up,  let  us  look  at  the  converse. 

SWEETNESS    OF    TEMPER    IN   THE  MOTHER. 

A  very  superior  woman,  yielding  to  her  mother's 
'earnest  entreaties,  married  a  most  inferior  and  every 
way  depraved  man,  toward  whom  her  repugnance  was 
extreme.  She  submitted  gently  to  her  fate,  with  lamb- 
like resignation,  and  her  first  child,  inheriting  all  its  mo- 
ther's power  of  constitution,  along  with  all  her  meek 
resignation,  was  a  perfect  specimen  of  angelic  loveli- 
ness. So  complete  a  paragon  of  sweetness  and  amia- 
bleness,  as  well  as  beauty,  has  rarely  been  born.  She 
died  in  childhood,  of  excessive  doctoring.  Her  mother 


AS    FORMING    THOSE    OF    OFFSPRING.  121 

has  large  Combativeness,  and  fu.l  Destructiveness,  yet 
lulled  them  to  sleep,  with  the  conscientious  idea  that 
she  was  a  lawful  wife,  and  must  bear  from  a  husband 
whatever  stripes  he  chose  to  inflict :  so  that  this  lamb- 
like goodness  was  not  hereditary — the  father  being  a 
domineering,  violent-tempered  man — but  was  caused  by 
the  mother's  subjugation.  Her  mother,  seeing  her  mis- 
take, urged  her  to  seek  a  divorce,  and  slightly  rallied 
her  resistance,  and  her  next  child  has  a  little  less  ami- 
ableness,  yet  is  an  uncommonly  sweet-dispositioned 
young  woman.  She  obtained  a  divorce,  and  married 
again.  Meanwhile,  her  health  had  suffered  from  poison- 
ous medicines,  her  nerves  became  preternaturally  ex- 
cited, and  accordingly  her  next  child  is  quite  spirited, 
cross-grained,  and  totally  unlike  any  of  her  sisters. 

Becoming  aware  of  the  great  maternal  law  under 
discussion,  the  husband  took  every  means  in  his  power, 
while  she  was  carrying  her  next  child,  to  render  his 
wife  happy  in  feeling — arranged  a  visit  from  his  father 
and  mother,  then  at  the  West,  which  was  peculiarly 
agreeable  to  her — placed  a  horse  and  carriage  at  their 
disposal,  in  which  they  took  many  pleasant  rides — dis- 
missed domestics  who  were  not  agreeable  to  her,  and 
relieved  her  from  previously  oppressing  cares — took 
many  walks,  and  had  many  sweet  talks  with  her — sus- 
tained, soothed,  and  humored  her,  and  did  all  he  could 
to  render  her  situation  as  agreeable,  and  mind  as  happy, 
as  possible ;  and  she  has  often  said  that  she  was  in  an 
unusually  pleasant  frame  of  mind  during  this  period. 
This  state  she  has  transmitted  to  the  next  child,  who  is 
peculiarly  sweet  tempered,  affectionate,  pleasant,  and 
every  way  lovely,  and  a  perfect  contrast  to  her  sister 
next  older,  born  before  these  oarents  understood  this  law 
11 


122  RESPONS1B  LITJES    OF    MOTHERS. 

But  in  case  any  one  part  of  our  subject  is  true,  all 
is.  If  either  excessive  fear,  or  anger,  or  sweetness,  or 
gloom,  or  any  ONE  characteristic  of  the  mother's  state 
Df  mind  at  this  period,  is  stamped  upon  the  constitution 
all  is.  The  whole  or  nothing405.  And  that  a  part  is 
every  mother  is  the  witness.  Thousands  of  times 
while  examining  the  heads  of  children,  have  I  predi- 
cated correctly  the  states  of  the  mother's  mind  and 
body,  previous  to  their  birth — founding  my  prediction 
solely  on  the  developments  of  these  children.  The  va- 
rying dispositions  of  large  families  furnish  a  correct 
history  of  the  mother's  states  of  mind  and  body  while 
bearing  them,  written  not  on  tables  of  stone,  but  en- 
graven, as  with  the  point  of  a  diamond,  on  the  tablets 
of  their  inner  being — not  only  stamping  all  their  feel- 
ings and  conduct  through  life,  but  perpetuating  itself  in 
generations  yet  unborn.  What  family  but  furnishes  a 
living  illustration  of  this  law  ? 

Momentous  indeed,  then,  is  the  responsibility  of  moth- 
ers as  mothers.  If  their  educational  responsibilities 
incalculably  affect  human  happiness  and  destiny,  how 
much  more  these  MATERNAL  relations  ?  How  many 
tremble  when  they  put  their  hands  to  important  papers, 
notes,  mortgages,  etc.,  and  well  they  may,  yet  what 
pitiable  trifles  all  these  things,  compared  with  stamping 
these  sons  and  daughters  of  immortality  with  the  die  of 
character  and  consequent  destiny — goodness  or  loveli- 
ness, ugliness  or  amiableness,  etc. — FOREVER  ! 

Prospective  mothers,  by  the  love  you  bear  the  chil- 
dren of  your  bodies  and  souls,  be  entreated  to  cultivate 
in  yourselves,  at  these  eventful  periods,  those  disposi- 
tions and  states  of  mind  which  you  would  delight  to 
witness  in  them.  More  than  language  can  express, 


ADVICE    TO    MuTIIERS.  123 

every  day  and  almost  hour  of  your  lives,  lovely  dispo- 
sitions in  them  contribute  to  your  happiness  ;  an  j  sour- 
ness— a  cross,  grieved,  teasing  disposition  in  them — • 
torment  you  your  life ;  long  and  thus  of  your  grand- 
children. All  this,  and  Inexpressibly  more,  as  regards 
yourself,  to  say  nothing  of  them,  depends  upon  your 
putting  yourself  into  an  ngreeable  frame  of  mind  at  this 
period.  And,  bear  in  mind,  *hat  this  your  frame,  so  far 
from  being  trifling  or  transient,  is  to  be  WOVEN  INTO 

THEIR  INMOST    BEING to  form   a  CONSTITUENT    PART    AND 

PARCEL    OF    THEIR    VERY     NATURES  !       What,    then,  if    OUt- 

ward  things  do  provoke,  is  not  this  mighty  motive  suffi- 
cient to  bear  you  far  above  these  trifling  irritants  ?  I 
have  closely  watched  mothers  at  this  period,  and  found 
them  instinctively  to  guard  their  precious  charge  from 
blows,  etc.,  by  instantly  and  unconsciously  folding  their 
protecting  arms  upon  it,  and  parrying  danger  from  this 
part,  let  it  strike  wherever  else  it  might.  I  have  like- 
wise observed,  that  when  not  too  jaded  out  by  fatigue 
and  fretted  by  outward  privations,  they  naturally  cher- 
ish a  calm  and  happy  frame  of  mind,  and  that  placidity 
and  quiet  just  shown  to  be  so  promotive  of  angelic 
sweetness  and  purity  in  children. 

Nature  favors  this  state  of  mind  thus.  She  has  made 
children  the  most  desirable  treasure  mothers  can  possi- 
bly possess.  The  real,  sincere  feeling  of  the  true  mother 
is  this:  "Oh,  I  had  rather  give  birth  to  one  dear  child, 
than  accomplish  all  other  possible  ends,  and  enjoy  all 
other  conceivable  good  !"  We  have  already  shown  that 
to  bear  children  is  the  great  destiny  of  woman  as  such 
418.  In  beautiful  accordance  with  this  law,  nature  has 
made  her  pleasure  in  the  prospect  of  becoming  a  mother 
commensurate  with  this  ha:  paramount  destiny — that  is, 


124  RESPONSIBILITIES    OF    MOTHERS. 

incomparably  surpassing  all  other.  Tue,  other  feelings 
arc  often  allowed,  by  women  who  are  not  true  to  their 
natures,  to  stifle  this  feeling.  Some  women — actual 
monstrosities  in  nature — in  violation  of  this  cardinal  law 
of  female  being,  hate  to  bear  children,  and  even  destroy 
the  germ  before  it  sees  the  light — of  which  in  its  place 
— but  does  the  first  cry  of  her  fresh-born  babe  thrill 
every  nerve  of  her  body,  every  fibre  of  her  soul,  and 
should  not  the  prospect  of  becoming  a  mother  naturally 
tend  to  fill  her  with  a  calm  and  happy  flow  of  feeling? 
How  she  delights  to  talk  about  her  prospects — ESPE- 
CIALLY TO  A  SYMPATHIZING  HUSBAND  ! — recount  all  her 
signs,  and  indulge  a  happy  revery  of  contemplation 
concerning  it.  Say,  mothers,  have  I  not  here  drawn 
the  veil  from  the  inner  consciousness  of  your  being,  and 
disclosed  the  maternal  altar  decked  in  its  sacrificial 
robes  ?  And  it  is  fitting  that  this  should  be  thus  ?  Na 
ture  would  not  be  true  to  herself  if  she  did  not  implant 
this  strong  maternal  yearning  in  every  female.  It  would 
be  like  rendering  food  absolutely  requisite  to  life,  yet 
giving  us  no  relish  for  it.  But  this  maternal  yearning  is 
to  child-bearing  what  hunger  is  to  our  need  of  food — 
attracting  and  compelling  us  to  eat  with  resistless  force. 
It  is  this  maternal  yearning  which  induces  in  mothers 
this  happy  frame  of  mind  so  promotive  of  goodness  in 
offspring. 

Be  ye  persuaded,  then,  O  mothers,  at  this  forming 
period  of  your  child's  mentality,  to  yield  to  that  eleva- 
ted current  of  feelings  which  your  situation  induces. 
How  happy  will  it  render  you  for  the  time  being — how 
happy  will  it  render  your  prospective  heir  of  immor- 
tality, and  you  in  it  throughout  the  remainder  of  your 
being  !  Why  let  little  things  trouble  you  ?  Why  not 


CHILD    BEARING    PARAMOUNT.  125 

rise  in  the  dignity  and  power  of  your  situation,  into  a 
mental  atmosphere  so  exalted,  so  spiritually  minded,  that 
what  provokes  you  at  other  times  shall  only  confirm 
your  serenity  ? 

"  But  I  have  my  family  to  see  too.  I  am  worn  down 
with  labor  by  day,  and  watching  by  night,  and  have 
squalling  children  always  under  my  feet,  so  that,  how- 
ever desirable  this  calm  and  holy  frame,  I  cannot  com- 
pose myself  till  I  can  attain  it,"  say  bearing  mothers. 

Better  that  your  family  live  on  bread  and  water  at 
these  periods,  and  you  have  lovely  children,  than  that 
you  do  all  the  work  you  now  do — most  of  which,  strictly 
speaking,  is  intrinsically  useless — and  have  ill-natured 
ones.  What  are  clean  rooms  and  furniture,  high  sea- 
soned dishes  and  many  of  them,  and  all  the  property 
you  do  or  ever  will  possess,  in  comparison  with  a  sweet 
or  crabbed  child  ?  Mothers,  remember  this.  While 
"  after  the  manner  of  women,"  you  are  solemnly  bound 
to  attend  to  THIS,  and  give  all  else  at  all  incompatible 
with  it,  the  go  \ y.  "One  thing  at  a  time."  Let  these 
household  trifles  sink  into  merited  neglect,  while  you 
attend  to  your  GREAT  mission.  Why  leave  dollars  to 
gather  pennies  ?  Do  what  else  you  can  without  con- 
flicting with  this,  but  give  your  WHOLE  soul  and  body 
to  this  as  far  as  it  requires  either,  nor  let  any  thing  else 
interfere.  Your  cooking,  and  scrubbing,  an;!  dressing, 
rind  dish- washing,  and  sewing  duties — what  are  they 
when  they  conflict  with  your  maternal  ?  As  the  latter 
is  the  paramount  function  of  your  being — that  expressly 
for  which  you  were  created — of  course  your  sacred  duty 
is  to  let  them  all  go  while  you  are  employed  at  this. 

Suppose  an  employer  hires  a  servant,  mainly  and  ex- 
pressly to  do  a  given  kind  of  work — yet,  as  there  are 
11* 


126  Dim     OF    HUSBANDS. 

times  when  he  cannot  bo  doing  this  work,  but  can  do 
incidentals,  his  employer  explicitly  requires,  that  us  far 
and  as  long  as  the  PARAMOUNT  work  requires,  he  shall 
give  up  wholly  to  it  all  his  time,  all  his  energies,  arid  at- 
tend to  these  incidentals  only  when  he  cannot  fulfill  his 
paramount  and  specific  service — suppose,  when  this 
paramount  work  was  required  to  be  done,  this  servant 
should  plead,  "  I  have  this,  that,  and  so  many  other 
things  to  attend  to,  that  I  really  cannot  take  time  and 
energy  to  attend  to  it."  Now  your  child-bearing 
mission  has  already  been  shown  to  be  THE  mission  of 
your  being — the  destiny  of  your  creation.  Will  you 
then,  when  fulfilling  it,  pile  care  after  care,  and  labor 
after  labor,  upon  yourself?  Do  this  in  the  very  best 
manner  possible,  and  the  others  only  as  mere  incidentals 
of  life. 

Besides,  if  you  had  borne  your  first  children  just 
right,  they  would  probably  have  been  so  sweet  and 
)bedient,  as  well  as  so  healthy,  as  to  have  enhanced 
ihat  holy  state  of  mind  required  by  yi  ur  existing  situa- 
tion, and  bearing  this  one  right  will  relieve  you  here- 
after. Do  this  ONE  duty,  and  "  all  other  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you  ;"  but  she  "  that  committeth  this  one 
sin,  is  guilty  of  ALL." 

DUTY    OF   HUSBANDS    TO    THEIR    WIVES    AT    THIS    PERIOD. 

But  has  the  husband  no  part  nor  lot  in  this  matter  ? 
Though  nature  'nterdicls  his  exerting  a  direct  influence 
on  the  forming  character  of  his  child,  after  he  has 
stamped  it  with  the  FIRST  great  impress  of  being  and 
character,  yet  does  she  not  allow  him  to  mould  it 

THROUGH  THE  MOTHER  ?    Nay,  doCS  she  not  REdUIRE 

his  co-operation  ?     Wla.  undew  the  whole  heaven  is  as 


REQUISITION    FOR    TENDERNESS.  127 

igreeable  to  her,  at  this  period,  as  his  caresses  and  con- 
solations ?  What  can  exert  as  calm  and  heavenly  an 
influence  over  her  mind  ?  To  be  beloved  by  the  father 
of  her  dear  babe,  is  the  true  wife's  all  and  in  all.  No 
other  thing  at  all  compares  with  this,  in  its  soothing, 
happifying,  soul-ravishing  influence  on  her  mind.  And 
if  these  things  be  done  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall  be 
Hone  in  the  dry  ?  If  a  husband's  fondness  is  her  soul's 
idol  in  genera],  how  much  more  so  now  !  If  to  be 
told,  at  other  times,  in  sweet  accents,  how  much  he 
loves  her  for  other  charms,  is  so  enchanting,  with  what 
overflowings  of  joy  does  she  hear,  "  I  love  you  always, 
but  oh,  I  love  you  now  as  the  prospective  mother  of 
our  dear  little  babe  !  My  whole  soul  is  melted  with 
parental  tenderness  for  it,  and  in  conjugal  love  for  you, 
as  carrying  it  in  your  sacred  embrace,  nourishing  it 
with  your  own  heart's  blood,  and  infusing  into  it  your 
own  lovely  spirit.  In  the  holiest  and  sweetest  relations 
of  our  being,  we  united  to  give  it  existence,  and  you  are 
now  maturing  this  precious  germ  of  humanity  and  im- 
mortality. You  were  lovely  always.  You  are  tenfold 
more  enchanting  now." 

And  is  it  not  natural  for  husbands,  who  love  their 
wives  at  all,  to  love  them  most  at  this  most  interesting 
period  ?  Have  we  not  PROVED  that  the  entire  loveliness 
of  woman,  as  such,  consists  in  her  MATERNAL  charms418? 
He  does  love,  should  love,  the  blushing  maiden  much  ; 
but  should  he  not  love  the  bearing  matron  more  ?  He 
should  dote  upon  that  confiding  bride,  who  forsakes  fa- 
ther and  mother  and  cleaves  to  him,  and  bestows  upon 
him  every  feeling  of  her  soul,  every  power  of  her  na- 
ture ;  but  should  he  not  love  this  same  being  far  more, 
pnd  with  a  far  higher  order  of  love,  when  she  is  fulfill- 


128  DUTY    OF    HUSBAND3. 

ing  these  most  endearing  relations  ?  Indeed  have  we 
not  already  proved,  that  as  the  charms  of  woman  con- 
sist in  her  maternal  elements,  so  man,  in  virtue  of  his 
nature  as  man,  loves  woman  most  when  fulfilling  the 
maternal  relations  1  "  Husbands,  love  your  wives" 
always,  but  lavish  upon  them  one  perpetual  flow  of 
tenderness  and  devotions,  while  they  are  thus  perpetu- 
ating your  name  and  race  upon  the  earth. 

Oh,  who  can  duly  prize  a  lovely  child  !  What,  in 
comparison,  is  the  gold  of  Ophir,  the  honors  of  nations, 
the  crowns  of  the  whole  world — what  all  other  earthly 
goods  ?  What  husband,  then,  can  duly  love  her  who 
bears  them,  and  while  thus  bearing  ?  She  who  bears 
her  husband  one  fine  child,  is  therefore  entitled,  in  de- 
spite of  all  her  faults,  to  all  the  gratitude  and  love  of  his 
being,  as  well  as  to  the  thank-offerings  of  his  race. 
Nor  will  any  true  husban<J — any  real  man — ever  cease 
to  love  her,  who  having  participated  with  him  in  the 
holiest  rites  of  their  being,  crowns  him  with  all  a  fa- 
ther's glory  and  happiness.  Who  but  a  flint-hearted 
gelding,  emasculated  of  every  manly  virtue  and  feeling, 
can  ever  cease  to  love  her  who  has  borne  him  even  but 
one  child,  and  love  her  more  and  more  by  every  new 
object  of  parental  love  ?  Certainly,  who  not  riddled  of 
every  masculine  feeling,  but  will  be  doubly  enamored 
of  her  maternal  charms,  and  chant  anthems  of  perpetual 
love  to  her,  while  carrying  within  her  the  sacred  casket 
of  all  his  joys  and  t-easures  ? 

Husbands,  at  the  bar  of  this  great  law,  and  duty,  and 
pleasure  of  the  masculine,  how  stand  you  with  your 
wives  at  this  tender  period  ?  If  they  imploringly  lean 
on  you  for  support,  do  you  always  uphold  and  console 
them  ?  When  their  situation,  in  conjunction  with  pre» 


FORBEARANCE    ENJOINED.  129 

nous  disorders  and  exhausting  family  burdens,  ren- 
ders them  peevish  and  whimsical,  do  you  forbear 
with  and  pity  them,  or  do  you  not  rather  lay  up 
against  them,  as  heinous  sins,  actions  and  sayings 
consequent  wholly  on  their  existing  situations  ?  Oh, 
how  many  of  you  cruelly  wrong  your  pitiable,  in- 
stead of  blameworthy  wives,  by  taking  offence  where 
reason  and  humanity,  as  well  as  conjugal  tenderness, 
require  you  to  overlook  with  love  !  They  can  no  more 
help  these  feelings  or  actions  than  the  wildest  lunatic, 
and  are  no  more  responsible,  but  deserve  all  love — still 
more  pity.  Though  they  may  scold  like  seven  furies, 
and  be  as  ugiy  as  Satan,  return  only  the  kiss  of  love, 
remembering  that  it  is  not  they  who  do  it,  but  the  child 
you  gave  them.  It  so  affects  the  organs  of  their  sex, 
and  these  organs  their  nervous  systems — the  recipro- 
city between  which  is  perfect,  in  order  that  the  men- 
tality of  the  mother  may  be  conferred  on  the  child — as 
to  cause  these  outbreaks  of  petulance  or  passion  by  pure- 
ly mechanical  means.  Where  is  your  love  ?  Where 
your  magnanimity  ?  Where  your  manhood,  even  ?  De- 
funct all,  unless  you  love  her  all  the  better  for  her  tem- 
per— considering  its  cause — and  do  your  utmost  to  as- 
suage it.  Nor  s  there  any  telling  how  much  the 
husband  can  do,  at  these  eventful  periods,  to  soothe 
down  her  irritability,  calm  her  excited  nerves,  dispel 
gloom  and  all  unfavorable  emotions,  raise  her  flagging 
spirits,  and  put  her  mind  exactly  into  the  state,  required. 
Then,  of  all  other  times,  should  he  clasp  her  fondly  in 
the  arms  of  his  love,  cheer  up  her  spirits,  strengthen 
her,  lavish  upon  her  every  attention,  do  every  thing  for 
her  comfort,  and  inclose  her  in  the  lambent  flame  of 
conjugal  love. 


ISO  DUTY    0?    HUSBANDS. 

Call  this  soft,  weak,  extravagant,  or  what  you  like  ;  it 
is  the  softness  of  nature,  the  weakness  of  stiength,  the 
extravagance  of  utility — of  your,  her,  and  your  off- 
spring's highest  good.  See  to  it  that  ye  fulfill  this 
ordinance  of  high  heaven.  This  imperious  duty  you, 
you  alone,  CAN  fill.  By  the  value  you  set  upon  sweet- 
dispositioned  children,  be  entreated  to  do  what  no  other 
being  can  do,  to  sweeten  and  soothe  your  wife's  feelings 
at  this  period,  pregnant  with  so  much  happiness  to  all 
concerned. 

Nor  does  your  duty  end  here.  You  are  most  guilty 
if  you  let  your  wives  overwork  at  these  times.  Yet 
how  many  of  you  actually  ADD  to  their  burden,  already 
crushing  both  health  and  spirits,  by  requiring  things  in 
the  matter  of  cooking,  sewing,  and  domestic  work, 
which  you  could  dispense  with  about  as  well  as  not. 
You  require  too  much  done  about  house — things  of 
more  imaginary  than  real  use.  Be  entreated  to  dis- 
pense with  all  artificial  wants,  and  see  that  they  take 
that  REST,  by  day  and  night,  already  shown  to  be  so 
absolutely  requisite.  Or,  if  you  must  have  just  so 
much  work  done,  HIRE  help.  Your  wife  will  repay  it  a 
hundred-fold  in  the  long  run,  by  preserved  health,  and 
bear  you  a  far  higher  order  of  a  child  besides. 

Upon  the  importance  of  recreation,  at  this  period,  I 
nave  already  spoken.  To  see  that  she  has  it,  is  one  of 
your  first  duties.  And  you  must  recreate  with  her— 
walk,  ride,  laugh,  play,  stroll,  lounge,  visit,  and  make 
merry.  Oh,  how  sadly,  wickedly,  husbands  fail  in  these 
essential  respects  !  How  far  higher  an  order  of  chil- 
dren they  might  have,  by  employing  these  and  such 
other  means  as  intellect  and  love  will  suggest  to  each, 
according  to  the;r  means  and  circumstances  ! 


BAD  CHILDREN    P1T1  4BLE.  131 

BAD-TEMPERED    CHILDREN    TO    BE    PITIED. 

In  this  irritability  of  the  mother  at  this  period  wi  1  be 
found  probably  the  greatest  existing  cause  of  ill-nature 
n  children.  That  ugly  boy,  always  provoking  his  sister, 
saucing  his  mother,  quarreling  with  his  mates,  torment- 
ing dumb  brutes,  perhaps  cursing  and  fighting,  is,  after 
all,  probably  the  more  to  be  commiserated  the  worse 
he  is,  just  as  he  would  be  if  he  had  inherited  a  white 
swelling  or  excruciating  cancer.  Granted  that  he  is  so 
very  provoking,  and  pesters  the  very  life  out  of  you, 
yet  did  you  not  as  parents,  or  as  his  mother,  saddle  on 
to  him,  while  powerless  and  completely  in  your  control, 
those  very  passions  which  are  the  thorns  of  his  as  well 
as  your  life,  and  which  you  are  thus  vainly  endeavoring 
to  punish  out  of  him?  "DYED  IN  THE  WOOL,"  by  your 
3WN  HANDS,  will  you  thus  beat  him  "  as  in  a  mortar  with 
a  pestle,"  to  rid  him  of  these  "  fast  colors  ?"  He  is  but 
the  passive  agent.  Suppose  you  punish  the  REAL  cause 
• — your  OWN  SELF.  Rather,  suppose  you  supersede  se- 
verity by  forbearance,  and  take  warning  for  the  future 

THE    BAD-DISPOSITIONED    DAUGHTER. 

An  irritable  mother  in  C.,  N.  H.,  brought  her  daugh- 
ter to  me,  with  a  spirit  completely  broken  down  by  her 
unmanageable  daughter.  She  said  that  this  daughter 
was  a  perfect  mule  in  even  trifles  ;  that  she  would  sit 
sometimes  all  day,  nor  sould  any  one  get  her  to  do  any 
thing,  not  even  to  comb  her  hair  ;  that  without  any 
cause  she  would  become  angry,  and  remain  sulky  and 
speechless  the  whole  day  ;  often  plague  the  very  life  out 
of  her  little  brother,  and  when  told  to  stop,  declare  that 
the  had  ro  spoken  to  him  since  morning;  that  when 


132  AFFECTIONATE    CHILDREN. 

dressed  for  church,  she  would  often  strew  her  clothes 
all  about  the  floor,  dishevel  her  hair,  etc. ;  that  neither 
reasoning,  nor  persuasion,  nor  any  thing  they  had  tried, 
made  any  impression  on  her ;  that  she  was  the  very 
worst  girl,  in  nearly  all  respects,  she  ever  saw,  and 
would  not  have  thought  it  possible  for  as  bad  a  one  to 
exist  till  she  saw  it,  etc. 

I  asked  her  what  her  own  state  of  mind  was  while 
carrying  her.  She  said  she  was  never  in  as  bad  a 
state ;  that  she  then  had  the  very  worst  of  servants— 
impudent,  lying,  thievish — which  provoked  her  almost 
to  death,  so  that  she  was  about  crazy;  that  she  changed 
them,  but  met  with  no  better  luck,  and  much  more  to 
this  effect.  Reader,  put  this  and  that  together. 

Mark,  especially,  that  this  girl  had  not  her  full  senses, 
and  the  mother,  at  this  period,  was  so  confused  as  to 
cloud  her  intellect.  I  have  seen  many  like  cases  ;  but 
of  this  in  its  place. 

Now  I  submit  whether  the  mother  was  not  mainly 
guilty,  for  branding  this  badness  and  stupidity  into  her 
inner  being  thus  effectually  ?  And  is  not  this  unfor 
tunate  dispositioned  child  more  sinned  against  than 
sinning  ?  I  asked  this  mother  how  she  could  be  thus 
severe  on  her  daughter,  now  that  she  knew  that  this 
CHILD  COULD  NOT  HELP  receiving  this  nature,  and  from 
her  very  accuser  Uo. 

I  doubly  pity  bad-tempered  children,  and  am  trying 
to  teach  parents  how  to  avoid  these  thorns  of  their 
being.  The  principle  under  discussion,  teaches  us 

HOW    TO    SECURE    AFFECTION    IN    CHILDREN. 

How  dear,  how  charming,  are  affectionate  children ! 
Oh,  how  I  love  to  have  my  little  ones  steal  on  tiptoe  to 


HOW    TO    SECURE    THEM.  139 

my  side,  and  imprint  the  warm  kiss  of  filial  love  on  my 
care-worn,  fatigued  brow  !  How  I  love,  at  table,  to 
have  that  little  dear  at  my  right  say,  "  Father,  I  want  to 
whisper  to  you  ;"  and  putting  those  sweet  lips  to  my 
cheek,  steal  a  filial  kiss.  I  love  to  have  them  hang 
affectionately  on  my  neck,  and  clamber  up  lovingly  on 
my  knee.  How  can  so  delectable  a  result  be  secured  ? 
By  reciprocating  love  with  our  wives  while  they  are 
carrying  these  dear  pledges  of  our  love. 

But  how  it  does  annoy  me  to  see  children  always 
picking,  and  snarling,  and  finding  fault !  How  their 
angry  tones  grate  on  my  pained  ear  !  Behold,  in  these 
pages,  the  panacea  of  the  one  and  the  guarantee  of  the 
other. 

FEAR   AND   ANXIETY    IN    MOTHERS. 

Both  the  great  maternal  law  under  discussion,  that 
the  child  takes  on  the  EXISTING  states  of  the  mother's 
mind  at  this  period,  and  also  some  of  the  specific  facts 
already  cited,  prove  that  extreme  solicitude  and  anxi- 
ety of  mind  on  her  part  will  unduly  develop  her  off- 
spring's Cautiousness.  I  have  seen  children  by  thou- 
sands rendered  so  irresolute  and  cowardly  as  to  be 
literally  spoiled  by  excessive  maternal  anxiety.  To 
detail  cases  where  there  are  so  many  would  almost 
mock  our  subject.  They  will  be  found  every  where,  in 
any  required  abundance  and  aggravation. 

This  state  of  mind  is  indeed  most  unfortunate — a  per- 
petual curse  to  its  luckless  victim.  Then  be  entreated, 
mothers,  not  to  indulge  in  yourselves  a  state  of  mind 
so  foolish,  and  yet  so  self-torturing  to  them.  To  par- 
ticularize. 

You  dread  your  prospective  confinement.  Every 
day  and  almost  every  hour  you  indulge  this  dread. 
12 


34  CHILDREN    RENDERED    INTELLECTUAL 

Why  ?  Does  this  lessen  your  prospective  pains  one  jot 
or  tittle  ?  Does  it  not  increase  them  by  unnerving  your 
mind  and  body  beforehand,  instead  of  fortifying  both 
against  them?  If  these  fears  did  the  least  good,  you 
might  have  an  excuse ;  hut  since  their  whole  influence 
is  evil,  and  only  evil,  anc.  that  continually,  why  indulge 
them  ?  Rather  rise  above  them  than  succumb  to  them. 
"  Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow ;  sufficient  unto  the 
day  is  the  evil  thereof." 

But  there  is  a  way  of  rendering  parturition  compara- 
tively easy,  and  never  hazardous ;  of  which  in  its  due 
place.  Use  these  means,  and  you  may  anticipate  your 
confinement  with  pleasure,  instead  of  dreading  it  with 
pain. 

Nor  let  fears  about  husband,  or  children,  or  property, 
or  any  thing  whatever  disturb  the  placid  flow  of  happy 
feeling.  Especially,  disperse  these  merely  whimsical 
fears,  that  are  as  senseless  as  injurious,  by  offsetting 
them  with  cool  reasoning.  Rise  above  such  nonsense 
by  putting  yourself  into  that  exalted  state  already  de- 
scribed. 

432.       HOW   TO    ENDOW   CHILDREN    WITH    SUPERIOR    NATURAL 
INTELLECTS    BEFORE    BIRTH. 

Talents  in  children,  next  to  goodness,  are  their  father's 
joy  and  mother's  "heart's  desire."  "What  a  world  of 
pains  do  mothers  take  to  render  their  children  smart, 
and  prodigies  of  learning !  The  best  of  teachers  and 
schools  from  three  years  old  and  upward  are  provided. 
And  how  many  crowd  their  children  into  prematrre 
graves  by  so  doing  ?  Yet  listen  to  a  far  more  effectual 
way  to  render  y;>ur  offspring  intellectual  prodigies.  Let 
the  bea':ing  MOTHER  study.  This  exercise  of  her  intel- 


BY    STUDIOUS    MOTHERS.  135 

iect  Will  increase  its  amount  in  her  for  the  time  being, 
and  of  course  enhance  its  flow  to  the  child,  in  accord- 
ance with  that  great  maternal  law  already  presented, 
that  every  faculty  of  the  mother's  mind  flows  to  the 
child  in  proportion  to  its  existing  abundance  in  her  at 
this  period.  Innumerable  and  most  striking  illustrations 
of  this  law  have  fallen  under  the  author's  observation. 
The  perpetual  recurrence  of  FACTS  observed  in  his  ex- 
tensive professional  practice  from  day  to  day,  and  year 
to  year,  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century,  have  forced 
him  to  believe  this  to  be  a  law  of  child-bearing  as  much 
as  to  believe  in  his  own  existence.  The  admirer  of 
Napoleon,  already  specified,  is  one  of  these  cases.  And 
this  law  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  entire  facts 
and  principles  presented  in  this  work. 

To  one  class  of  facts,  illustrative  of  this  law,  yet  not 
generally  considered  as  such,  special  attention  is  invited 
• — to  PRECOCIOUS  children.  I  have  never  seen  one  that 
did  not  illustrate  this  principle.  One  case  must  serve 
for  all. 

A  most  excellent  doctress,  while  carrying  her  first 
child,  was  in  daily  and  quite  extensive  practice — receiv- 
ing patients  instead  of  *isiting  them — and,  being  highly 
intelligent,  brought  a  great  amount  of  intellect  to  the 
analysis  of  her  cases,  in  the  treatment  of  her  juvenile 
patients.  Her  child  was  a  perfect  prodigy.  Its  bright 
eyes  would  often  tight  its  countenance  with  almost 
superhuman  intelligence,  and  its  capacities  weve  indeed 
surprising.  But  its  brain  consumed  its  body,  jt  declin- 
ed, lingered,  and  finally  died  of  brain  fever ;  not,  how- 
ever, till  its  precocious  brain  had  literally  spent  ttio 
entire  energies  of  its  system. 


130  DEVELOPMENT    OF    INTELLECT. 

THE    ARITHMETICAL    GIRL. 

To  examine  this  subject  in  the  light  of  specific  facul- 
ties. Mrs.  S was  naturally  averse  to  arithmetic, 

and  very  poor  in  Calculation — this  organ  is  small  in  her 
head — and  her  husband  was  quite  as  deficient  in  this 
respect  in  both  head  and  character.  He  failed  in  busi- 
ness at  the  east,  and  went  west.  Here  his  eyes  failed 
him,  so  that  he  could  not  apply  them  to  keeping  books. 
His  ambitious  wife,  determined  to  help  him  rise  in  the 
world,  applied  her  whole  mind  to  keeping  his  accounts, 
answering  his  letters,  etc.,  and  as  they  soon  secured  a 
large  business,  her  calculation  was  perpetually  employ- 
ed, for  she  kept  his  accounts  in  first-rate  order.  Mean- 
while, she  gave  birth  to  a  fine  daughter,  who  has  a  most 
extraordinary  talent  for  computing  numbers  in  her  head, 
and  acquiring  arithmetic. 

Observe  that  both  father  and  mother  were  POOR  in 
figures,  so  that  her  superior  calculating  powers  were 
not  hereditary.  From  what  source,  then,  could  she 
have  obtained  them,  but  from  the  mother's  vigorous 
EXERCISE  of  Calculation  while  carrying  this  arithmetical 
child  ?  Is  not  this  cause  adequate  to  this  effect  ?  And 
ascribing  it  to  this  cause  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  all 
the  laws,  all  the  facts,  set  forth  in  this  work. 

She  also  taught  music  at  this  period,  and  this  daugh- 
ter is  a  splendid  singer  and  performer  on  the  piano,  and 
often  composes  superior  music  impromptu. 

She  also  excels  in  composition.  Though  only  nine 
years  old,  yet  her  letters  are  really  beautifully  indited. 
I  speak  from  personal  observation.  This  was  doubtless 
exercised  by  her  mother's  answering  all  the  letters,  and 
doing  all  the  writing  of  a  large  business.  Indeed,  tho 


COLBURN'S  HISTORY.  13*7 

child  has  a  splendid  intellectual  lobe,  far  superior  to 
either  of  her  parents,  caused,  doubtless,  by  the  intense 
action  of  the  mother's  entire  intellect  at  this  period. 
The  case  of  a  son,  born  soon  after,  and  carried  under 
similar  circumstances,  is  almost  equally  proof  of  the 
maternal  law  that  the  vigorous  EXERCISE  of  maternal 
intellect  as  a  whole,  or  of  any  special  intellectual  faculty, 
during  pregnancy,  will  render  the  exercised  faculties 
far  more  powerful  BY  NATURE  in  children  than  in  their 
parents.  Neither  of  these  children  took  after  either  of 
their  parents,  yet  the  natural  talents  of  both  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  states  of  the  MOTHER'S  mind  during 
their  carriage. 

ZERA  COLBURN'S  FCETAL  HISTORY. 

In  1843,  I  visited  the  native  place  of  this  greatest  of 
modern  calculators  and  natural  arithmeticians.  A  Mrs. 
Grimes  knew  his  mother  well,  and  related  the  following 
fact  touching  her  state  of  mind  before  his  birth  :  She 
obtained  her  living  in  part  by  weaving  figured  cloths, 
such  as  diaper,  and  other  like  work.  This  required  a 
great  exercise  of  calculation,  for  she  often  invented  and 
copied  new  figures.  But  she  undertook  one  figure 
which  troubled  her  exceedingly.  For  several  days,  she 
tried,  and  kept  trying,  to  work  out  the  problem,  but  in 
vain,  till  she  was  on  the  point  of  giving  it  up  wholly. 
It  even  kept  her  awake  nights,  so  intent  was  she  on 
studying  it  out.  At  length,  one  night,  after  laying 
awake  the  whole  night,  she  solved  the  problem,  which 
was  to  the  effect  that  so  many  threads  woven  thus,  and 
so  many  more  woven  thus,  etc.,  would  bring  the  requir- 
ed figure.  She  arose  in  the  morning,  without  having 
12* 


138  RENDERING    CHILDREN    INTELLIGENT. 

slept  a  single  wink  during  the  night,  and  wove  the  figure 
at  once,  without  any  difficulty,  because  she  had,  during 
the  night,  deciphered  it  all  out  in  her  head. 

Meanwhile  she  was  pregnant  with  this  arithmetical 
prodigy,  which,  in  his  day,  astonished  the  entire  civilized 
world.  Attention  was  first  drawn  to  his  wonderful 
arithmetical  powers  by  his  often  standing,  before  he  was 
three  years  old,  and  saying  to  himself,  "So  many  of 
this,  and  so  much  of  that,  make  so  much  of  the  other.'' 
That  is,  he  showed  not  only  extraordinary  arithmetical 
powers,  but  of  THAT  PARTICULAR  SPECIES  which  his 
mother  exercised  so  vigorously  before  his  birth.  1 
think  her  study  occurred  within  about  two  months  of 
his  birth. 

Mrs.  Pendleton,  in  her  Parents'  Guide  and  Child- 
birth made  Easy — a  work  written  by  a  mother  to 
mothers,  and  deserving  extensive  circulation — gives  the 
following  facts  in  point : 

"  The  mother  was  past  forty  years  of  age,  of  an  en- 
ergetic temperament,  active  habits,  and  self-educated. 
For  some  months  previous  to  the  birth  of  her  fifth  child, 
sh«  had  become  a  convert  to  the  belief  in  the  transmission 
of  mental  and  moral  qualities.  To  test  the  truth  of  this 
belief,  she  exercised  her  own  mental  powers  to  their  full 
extent.  She  attended  the  lectures  of  the  season,  both 
literary  and  scientific  ;  read  much,  but  such  works  only 
as  tend  to  exercise  and  strengthen  the  reasoning  faculties 
and  improve  the  judgment — the  domestic  and  foreign 
reviews,  history,  biography,  etc.  She  was  also  engaged 
in  the  active  duties  of  a  large  family,  in  which  she  found 
full  sccpe  for  the  exercise  of  the  moral  sentiments,  but 
never  allowed  any  thing  to  disturb  the  equanimity  of 
her  temper.  When  her  time  came,  she  was  in  labor 


OBJECTION    ANSWERED.  139 

two  days  ;  al  her  suffering,  however,  was  forgotten  at 
the  birth  of  a  son,  with  a  head  of  the  finest  form,  firm 
est  quality,  and  largest  size — with  the  reflecting  organs 
of  a  Bacon,  and  the  moral  ones  of  a  Melancthon.  A 
head,  in  short,  on  which  nature  had  written,  in  charac- 
ters too  legible  to  be  misunderstood,  strength,  power, 
and  capability  ;  and  of  whom  it  is  already  said,  '  He  is 
the  youngest  of  his  family,  but  will  soon  become  its 
head.' 

"  But  it  may  be  said,  the  number  of  women  is  small 
who  would  be  willing  to  encounter  the  extra  pains  and 
perils  of  childbirth,  induced  by  the  training  of  the  last 
example.  To  such  we  can  only  say,  that  when  they 
discover  the  minds  of  their  children  to  be  '  unstable  a? 
water,'  with  scarcely  understanding  enough  to  distin- 
guish good  from  evil,  and  not  firmness  of  character 
sufficient  to  pursue  any  steady  course  through  life,  in 
the  anxiety  and  unhappiness  which  such  conduct  occa- 
sions, they  must  reap  the  punishment  of  their  own  want 
of  moral  and  physical  courage,  at  the  time  when  the 
exercise  of  those  qualities  would  have  been  transmitted 
by  them  to  their  offspring.  It  is,  however,  my  firm 
conviction,  that  if  women  would  study  the  structure 
of  their  own  bodies,  and  the  functions  of  its  different 
organs,  and  acquire  some  knowledge  of  the  principles 
of  obstetrics,  they  might  escape  a  great  portion  of  the 
present  dangers  and  sufferings  of  childbirth  ;  but  in  the 
present  system  of  female  education,  that  branch  of 
knowledge  which  would  enable  them  to  raise  a  family 
of  healthy  children  with  success,  appears  to  be  most 
neglected. 

"  '  There  is  no  question,'  says  Dr.  Elliotson,  '  that  the 
cultivation  of  any  organ  or  power  of  the  parent  will 


140  MOTHER'S  STATES  OF  MIND. 

dispose  to  the  production  of  offspring  improved  in  the 
same  particular.' 

"'It  is  well  known,'  says  Walker,  on  Intermarriage, 
•that  the  whelps  of  well-trained  dogs  are.  almost  at 
birth,  more  fitted  for  sporting  purposes  than  others. 
The  most  extraordinary  and  curious  observations  of  this 
kind  have  been  made  by  Mr.  Knight,  who,  in  a  paper  read 
to  the  Royal  Society,  showed  that  the  communicated 
powers  were  not  of  a  vague  or  general  kind,  but  that 
any  particular  art  or  trick  acquired  by  the  animals  was 
readily  practiced  by  their  progeny  without  the  slightest 
instruction.' 

"  '  It  was  impossible  to  hear  that  interesting  paper 
without  being  deeply  impressed  by  it.  Accordingly 
in  taking  a  long  walk  afterward  for  the  purpose  of 
reflecting  upon  the  subject,  it  forcibly  struck  me,  that 
the  better  education  of  women  was  of  much  greater 
importance  to  their  progeny  than  is  imagined  ;  and  in 
calling  on  Sir  Anthony  Carlisle,  on  my  return,  to  speak 
of  the  paper  and  its  suggestions,  he  mentioned  to  me  a 
very  striking  corroboration  of  this  conclusion. 

"  *  He  observed,  that  many  years  since  an  old  school- 
master had  told  him  that  in  the  course  of  his  persona, 
experience  he  had  observed  a  remarkable  difference  in 
the  capacities  of  children  for  learning,  which  was  con- 
nected with  the  education  and  aptitude  of  their  pa- 
rents ;  that  the  children  of  people  accustomed  to  arith- 
metic, learned  figures  quicker  than  those  of  differently 
educated  persons  ;  while  the  children  of  classical  scho- 
lars more  easily  learned  Latin  and  Greek  ;  and  that 
ix>twithstanding  a  few  striking  exceptions,  the  natural 
dullness  of  children  born  of  uneducated  parents  was 
proverbial.' " 


APPLICATION.  141 

Other  examples  of  the  cultivation  of  other  faculties  in 
ihe  mother  during  pregnancy,  as  rendering  these  facul- 
ties stronger  in  offspring  than  in  their  parents,  might  be 
adduced;  but  is  not  this  law  too  apparent  to  require  fur- 
thei  proof  or  enforcement?  What  intelligent  mind  can 
examine  this  subject,  in  the  light  of  either  its  facts  or 
principles,  without  the  full  conviction  of  its  truth  ? 

And  if  one  intellectual  or  moral  faculty  can  be  in- 
creased in  the  child  by  being  exercised  in  the  mother, 
all  can.  This  period,  so  frequently  employed  through- 
out the  work,  applies  here  with  its  greatest  power, 
because  this  is  the  great  point  of  character. 

And  now,  mothers,  behold  in  this  law  the  possibility 
and  the  MEANS  of  endowing  your  children,  either  with 
any  specific  talent,  or  with  superior  natural  talents  as  a 
whole.  To  render  your  prospective  children  musical, 
or  mathematical,  or  eloquent,  or  literary,  or  methodical, 
or  deep  reasoners,  or  superior  composers,  or  authors,  or 
editors,  or  wits,  or  critics,  or  mechanics,  or  poets,  or 
naturalists,  etc.,  you  have  only  vigorously  to  EXERCISE 
the  faculties  required  by  these  callings  in  yourselves 
before  their  birth.  And  I  appeal  to  you  to  say  whethei 
a  knowledge  of  this  fact  is  not  of  INCALCULABLE  value 
Will  you  not  be  persuaded  to  study  it  in  its  various 
ramifications,  and  apply  it  to  the  augmentation  of  the 
alents  and  morals  of  your  children  ? 

433.       SECURING    BALANCE    IN    OFFSPRING. 

To  one  application  of  this  law,  special  attention  is 
invited.     Many  children  are  just  about  spoiled,  not  for 
want  of  talents,  or  morals,  but  for  want  of  BALANCE  of 
faculties.     They  lack  HARMONY  of  character,  and  CON 
BISTENCY  of  judgment.     Their  opinions  are  one-sided. 


142  SECURE    BALANCE. 

and  conduct  improper,  because  some  faculties  are  too 
strong  and  others  too  weak.     They  are  full  of  imper 
fections,  and  effectually  crippled  and  marred  throughout 
their  whole  being,  because  of  these  constitutional  dis- 
tortions, inherited  from  their  parents. 

Mothers,  have  you  no  such  idiosyncrasies  ?  You 
are  not  as  likely  to  see  them  as  others  ;  yet  are  you 
not  SENSIBLE  of  having  many  faults  ?  And  would 
you  transmit  these  faults  to  your  prospective  offspring, 
if  it  were  possible  to  avoid  it  ?  Behold,  in  this  mater- 
nal law,  the  MEANS  of  rendering  your  future  CHIL- 
DREN far  more  perfect  than  yourselves.  Are  you  ren- 
dered imperfect  and  unhappy  by  excess  of  Cautious- 
ness— by  groundless  fears  and  halting  procrastination  ? 
You  have  only  to  fortify  yourself,  at  this  period,  against 
these  fears,  and  at  the  same  time  to  cultivate  resolution 
and  courage,  and  your  offspring  will  not  be  cursed  with 
so  weakening  a  predisposition.  Are  you  excessively 
fond  of  praise,  or  property,  or  deficient  in  devotion,  or 
taste,  or  memory,  or  conversational  powers,  or  Causal- 
ity, or  Tune,  or  any  faculty  of  mind  whatever  ?  Be? 
hold  in  this  law  the  means  of  supplying  these  defects, 
and  obviating  these  excesses  in  your  prospective  off- 
spring. 

What  you  require  to  do,  then,  is  this  :  Learn  from 
Phrenology  which  of  your  talents  are  too  weak,  and 
ASSIDUOUSLY  CULTIVATE  them  at  this  period.  A  phreno- 
logical and  physiological  examination  of  yourselves, 
with  special  reference  to  this  point,  would  be  of  incal- 
culable service  to  you.  And  the  author  may  yet  con- 
clude to  append  a  table  to  this  work,  with  a.  view  of 
facilitating  the  marking  of  a  maternal  chart,  by  way 
of  directing  mothers  what  faculties  given  individuals 


REGIMEN    AT    DIFFERENT    STAGES.  143 

should  more  especially  cultivate  in  themselves,  in  ordei 
to  the  perfection  of  the  offspring. 

But  while  expounding  this  maternal  law,  and  in  order 
to  its  complete  impressment,  let  us  take  a  little  broader 
view,  and  develop  a  law  of  foetal  formation,  more  prac- 
tically important  to  mothers,  as  showing  them  how  they 
should  manage  themselves  at  this  period,  than  any  other. 

THE  REGIMEN  REQUIRED  AT  DIFFERENT  STAGES  OF  ADVANCEMENT. 

To  state  as  well  as  illustrate  this  law  by  facts.     In 
Watertown,  N.  Y.,  the  author  saw  a  child,  whose  looks, 
actions,  and  shape  of  head,  bore  a  close  resemblance  to 
those  of  the  monkey.     The  organs  at  the  root  of  the 
nose  were  immense ;  Causality  was  wanting,  Approba- 
tiveness  and  the  animal  region  were  large,  and  the  head 
sloped  back  from  the  perceptive  organs  to  the  crown 
of  the  head,  except  at  Imitation,  which  was  large  ;   and 
the  first  position  the  child  attempted  was  to  catch  hold 
of  the  table  or  any  thing  else,  and  SWING  EY  THE  HANDS, 
analogous   to   the    monkey's    climbing  with  its    hands. 
Some  three  months  before  the  birth  of  this  child,  the 
mother  visited  a  menagery,  and  was  particularly  im- 
pressed with  a  fine  monkey,  which   so  engrossed  hei 
attention,  that  she  could  not  keep  her  eyes  from  it,  and 
it  appeared  equally  interested  in  her.     Wh?it  struck  me 
most,  was   the   resemblance   of  the   child's   head  and 
PHRENOLOGICAL  DEVELOPMENTS  to  those  of  the  monkey, 
they  being  only  those  of  the  monkey  enlaced  ;  with 
which,  also,  its  CAST  OF  MIND  harmonized. 

A  young  woman  called  at  our  office  for  p\ete*sional 
examination.  Her  head  was  very  large,  au.i  brain 
extremely  active,  while  her  body  was  weak  and  health 
poor.  Her  mind  was  so  far  above  the  common  pin  of 


1  14  HuGIMEN    EEaUIRBD 

her  associates,  that  they  failed  utterly  to  appreciate  her 
and  she  felt  no  sympathy  with  them.  She  therefore  lea 
a  miserable  life,  because,  first,  she  was  on  a  mental  plane 
so  far  above  those  about  her,  and  secondly,  because  she 
had  so  great  a  preponderance  of  brain  over  body.  Her 
case  interested  my  sister  so  deeply,  that  she  requested 
her  to  call  again,  to  talk  over  her  state  of  mind,  with  a 
view  of  suggesting  some  remedy.  She  called,  and  on 
my  sister's  inquiry,  "  What  age  was  your  mother  at 
your  birth  ?"  was  answered,  FORTY-SIX.  This  solved  the 
problem.  Her  mother  had  become  so  MENTAHZED — to 
coin  a  new  word — by  age,  as  to  have  imparted  to  her  far 
too  much  mind  for  her  body  ;  yet  this  was  not  the  case 
with  her  other  children,  because  the  mother's  mind  had 
not  yet  predominated  so  much  over  her  body  as  now. 

A  range  of  converse  facts  bearing  on  this  point  is  to 
this  effect,  that  "  the  youngest  children  are  generally  the 
smartest."  The  reason  is,  that  since  the  animal  is  rela- 
tively stronger  in  youth  than  in  mature  age,  and  since 
children  take  on  the  respective  qualities  of  parents  exist- 
ing in  the  latter  when  the  former  received  being  and 
character,  of  course  the  eldest  children,  born  while  their 
parents  were  yet  wild,  rattle-brained,  frolicksome,  impul- 
sive, and  swayed  by  various  animal  passions,  are  more 
animal  and  less  intellectual  and  moral  than  the  younger 
children,  who  are  born  after  the  higher  faculties  of  their 
parents  have  assumed  the  reins  of  government. 

About  ten  miles  southeast  of  Adams,  N.  Y.,  the  author 
saw  an  idiotic  girl,  who  talked,  walked,  and  acted  every 
way  like  a  drunken  person.  The  father,  in  accounting 
for  it,  said,  that  about  three  or  four  months  before  the 
birth  of  this  child,  as  he  and  his  wife  were  riding  home 
on  horseback,  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  she  became 


AT    DIFFERENT    STAGES.  145 

very  much  frightened,  and  thrown  almost  into  an  hys- 
teric fit,  by  seeing  a  drunken  man  by  the  side  of  the 
road  have  a  fit,  in  which  he  lay  and  rolled  back  and 
forth,  from  head  to  foot.  The  first  position  into  which 
this  child  was  known  to  put  itself,  was  to  throw  itself 
on  its  back,  and  roll  back  and  forth,  exactly  like  this 
drunkard.  She  walked  like  him,  talked  like  him,  and 
looked  like  him.  On  examining  her  head,  I  found  large 
Cornbativeness,  Destructiveness,  Self-Esteem,  Firmness, 
and  perceptive  and  social  organs,  but  small  Causality, 
Comparison,  Benevolence,  Veneration,  Conscientious- 
ness, Hope,  Marvelousness,  and  Ideality — an  organiza- 
fion  which  harmonized  entirely  with  her  character. 

Dr.  Kimball,  of  Sackett's  Harbor,  showed  me  a  lad 
having  a  splendid  intellectual  lobe,  whose  mother  was 
called,  by  the  sickness  of  her  husband,  to  leave  her  na- 
.ive  village  and  go  to  New- York.  On  arriving  there, 
she  found  him  convalescent,  and,  being  there,  she  staid 
some  time,  to  visit  the  city,  with  which  she  was  delight- 
ad  immeasurably,  and  of  which  she  often  spoke  after 
her  return.  Seeing  so  much  of  the  world,  and  of  men 
and  things  that  were  new  to  her,  seemed  to  give  to  her 
mind  a  new  start,  and  the  child,  born  four  months  after, 
was  prodigiously  smart,  and  had  a  towering  intellectual 
lobe.  Other  facts,  of  a  similar  bearing,  might  be  stated 
in  any  required  abundance,  but  these  will  suffice  to  illus- 
trate our  principle,  which  is,  that  during  the  first  four 
or  five  months  of  gestation,  the  PHYSICAL  system,  and 
the  PROPENSITIES  AND  FERCEPTivEs,  take  their  size  and 
tone,  but  that  the  MENTAL  apparatus,  and  with  it  the 
REASONING  AND  MORAL  faculties,  are  formed,  and  their 
size  adjusted,  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  MONTH.  Hence,  during 
the  first  portion  of  gestation,  mothers  should  take  much 
13 


146  MATERNAL    REGIMEN    RECiU 

sxercise,  and  keep  up  a  full  supply  of  physical  vigor— 
the  materials  then  most  demanded  by  the  embryo — but 
that,  after  the  fifth  or  sixth  month,  or  while  the  TOP  of 
the  child's  brain  is  forming,  they  should  study  mi  ch, 
and  have  their  moral  faculties  called  out  in  a  special 
manner,  so  as  to  furnish  an  abundance  of  these  materials 
at  the  time  when  they  are  in  greatest  demand  by  the 
child. 

This  theory  is  supported  by  the  following  concurrent 
testimony :  First,  when  causes  like  those  mentioned 
above,  arrest  or  retard  the  growth  of  the  foetus,  about 
or  before  the  sixth  month,  the  PROPENSITIES  AND  PER- 
CEPTIVES  are  found  fully  developed,  while  the  coronal 
region  is  small ;  and  the  reverse  results  from  opposite 
conditions. 

Secondly,  by  the  formation  and  growth  of  the  brain, 
from  first  to  last.  At  first,  its  BASE  only  is  developed, 
and  it  forms,  not  all  its  parts  equally,  but  its  base  FIRST, 
to  which  is  added  layer  after  layer,  UPWARD  AND  FOR- 
WARD, as  it  becomes  more  and  more  developed.  The 
skull,  at  birth,  is  also  much  larger,  relatively,  at  its  base 
than  at  its  crown,  but  the  top  of  it  grows  much  faster, 
relatively,  AFTEB.  birth,  than  he  base;  and  it  is  devel- 
oped, not  proportionally  and  simultaneously  in  all  its 
parts,  but  most  coronally  and  anteriorally. 

Thirdly.  The  mentality  is  successively  developed  in 
harmony  with  the  same  law.  The  animal  passions  are 
much  stronger  in  children  than  in  adults,  because  the 
reciprocal  relation  existing  between  the  body  and  the 
PROPENSITIES  is  much  more  intimate  and  powerful  than 
that  existing  between  the  body  and  the  coronal  region. 
Hence,  during  childhood  and  youth,  while  the  body  is 
most  vigorous,  the  reasoning  and  moral  faculties  make 


AT    DIFFERENT    STAGES.  147 

poor  headway  against  Acquisitiveness,  Combativeness, 
Destructiveness,  Appetite,  etc.;  in  middle  age,  both  the 
basilar  and  the  coronal  region  are  strong,  but  as  age 
advances  and  the  body  wanes,  the  mental  and  more1 
gain  rapidly  on  the  animal,  overtake  them,  subject  them, 
and  pass  them,  causing  men  to  take  their  highest  plea- 
sure in  things  that  partake  of  a  moral  and  intellect- 
ual cast.  Hence,  children  rarely  feel  the  importance 
of  study,  till  they  are  fifteen,  because  intellect  is  yet 
immature ;  but,  taking  a  new  start  about  that  period,  it 
wakes  up  to  a  new  existence,  and  progresses  more  in 
acquiring  knowledge,  extending  and  deepening  the  range 
of  thought,  and  studying  into  first  principles  in  a  year, 
than  the  whole  time  before ;  and,  as  the  bodily  vigor 
decreases,  mental  power  and  energy  increase.  Milton 
began  to  rear  his  eternal  monument  of  fame,  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  when  fifty-seven,  and  old  and  decrepit  at  that ; 
and  most  works  of  genius,  the  chief  merit  of  which 
depends  on  clearness  and  power  of  thought,  have  been 
wiitten  by  men  whose  physical  powers,  and  with  them 
their  animal  propensities  were  waning,  and  whose  re- 
maining energy,  therefore,  was  consumed  by  their  core 
nal  region. 

And  death  itself  illustrates  this  principle,  by  extinguish- 
ing the  fires  of  ANIMAL  PASSION  first,  and  letting  those 
of  the  intellect  and  the  moral  sentiments  go  out  last ; 
thereby  rendering  our  descent  to  the  grave  much  less 
painful  than  if  torn  from  life  and  its  pleasures,  while  the 
APPETITE  for  them  retained  all  its  former  energy,  at 
the  same  time  that  it  prepares  us  for  that  great  MORAL 
change  sought  by  the  truly  good,  in  which  the  moral 
sentiments  shall  maintain  complete  sway  over  the 
propensities— a  principle  rich  in  philosophic  beauty 


148  MATERNAL    REGIMEN    RtttUIRED 

and  most  beneficial  in  all  its  multifarious  bearings  on 
the  happiness  of  man,  but  more  fully  demonstrated  in 
the  author's  work  on  "  Education  and  Self-Improve- 
ment." 

To  repeat,  then,  with  emphasis,  let  the  MORAL  SENTI- 
MENTS AND  INTELLECT  of  the  mother  be  called  into 
habitual  and  vigorous  exercise,  during  the  latter  stages 
of  pregnancy,  by  books,  lectures,  and  agreeable  con- 
versation and  associations,  attending  meetings,  etc.,  and 
let  every  thing  calculated  to  vex  her,  or  excite  her  pro- 
pensities, or  disturb  her  equanimity  and  serenity  of 
mind,  be  removed,  and  her  condition  rendered  as  agree- 
able, as  wholesome,  and  as  happy  as  possible.  And  let 
husbands  remember,  that  in  this  one  respect  merely, 
they  owe  a  most  important  duty  to  their  wives  and 
their  posterity.  "  Be  ye  wise." 

In  summing  up  this  whole  subject  of  the  states  of  the 
mother  during  pregnancy,  as  affecting  her  children,  both 
physically  and  mentally,  let  me  beseech  prospective 
mothers  to  STUDY  it  thoroughly  in  all  its  complicated 
ramifications.  All  contemplated  in  this  work,  is  to  de- 
velop some  of  the  FUNDAMENTAL  LAWS  which  govern 
the  maternal  relations,  so  as  thereby  to  put  you  upon 
the  track  of  observation  and  reflection.  So  far  from 
having  exhausted  this  theme,  I  have  only  just  opened  it. 
A  world  of  detail  remains  for  ycu  individually  to  search 
out  and  apply  according  to  the  maternal  defects  of  each 
mother,  and  to  the  virtues  and  capabilities  with  which 
each  would  endow  each  child.  And  remember,  that 
"  every  LITTLE  helps" — that  even  trifling  improvements 
in  yourself  will  stamp  the  inner  nature  of  your  child 
the  more  favorably.  Let  mothers  talk  over  this  whole 
subject  among  themselves,  and  exchange  experiences 


A  7    DIFFERENT    STAGES.  J49 

and  suggestions.  Especially,  let  them  instruct  their 
DAUGHTERS  and  YOUNG  female  friends.  Put  young  wo- 
men upon  the  look  out,  so  that  when  they  come  to  fulfill 
these  relations,  they  may  be  already  informed  what  re- 
gimen in  them  will  secure  the  best  children.  As  this 
child-bearing  function  is  the  ONE  GREAT  destiny  of  wo- 
man, so  the  study  of  its  conditions  is  the  PARAMOUNT 
study  of  all  women,  young  and  old — at  least,  till  they 
are  past  bearing.  And  what  study  is  equally  important, 
in  itseJf,  or  appropriate  to  the  female  sex  ? 

434.       APPEAL    TO    MOTHERS. 

And  now,  mothers,  behold  the  length,  and  breadth, 
and  sweep  of  this  law  ;  and  while  you  behold,  tremble 
in  view  of  the  infinite  power  for  good  it  puts  into  your 
hands.  Tremble  ?  rather  exult.  Let  your  souls  leap 
for  joy,  in  view  of  the  potential  influence  placed  by  this 
law  at  your  disposal.  You  prize  your  children  beyond 
all  expression  or  conception.  Your  souls  are  bound  up 
with  theirs,  in  all  the  intensity  of  maternal  yearnings. 
It  would  give  you  pleasure  to  be  rich,  to  be  fashionable, 
to  be  praised,  to  be  comfortable  in  this  world's  goods, 
but  no  other  thing — not  every  thing  else  combined — 
would  pour  into  your  soul  a  perfect  overflowing  of  joy 
as  rich,  or  pleasure  as  delightful,  as  would  angelic  chil- 
dren. Sweet,  amiable,  and  affectionate — pure  in  their 
morals,  refined  in  their  tastes,  quick  and  correct  in  all 
their  mental  operations,  adorned  with  every  virtue, 
marred  with  no  defects,  and  as  happy  as  angels — would 
not  everyday  and  hour,  jvery  manifestation  of  excellen- 
cies, thrill  through  your  whole  soul,  and  render  you  PER- 
FECTLY happy  ?  Bear  this  in  mind,  that  while  most  of 
the  other  pleasures  of  life  are  temporary,  and  can  be 
13* 


150  APPEAL    TO    MOTHERS. 

enjoyed  only  at  particular  seasons,  the  delightful  emo- 
tions awakened  in  the  parental  bosom  by  magnificent 
children  are  perpetual.  Every  day,  every  hour,  en- 
hances them.  Every  look  you  cast  in  their  sweet, 
beautiful  faces,  every  bright  scintillation  of  their  quick, 
free  intellects,  every  exercise  of  the  heavenly  virtues, 
renews  your  pleasure.  Flowers  give  us  pleasure,  food 
gives  us  pleasure,  friends  give  us  pleasure,  pictures 
give  us  pleasure,  doing  good  gives  us  pleasure,  so  does 
doing  well.  Music,  poetry,  knowledge,  conversation, 
thought,  wit — all  our  faculties  give  us  pleasure  ;  but 
there  is  something  in  the  feelings  which  a  tender  mo- 
ther cherishes  for  the  child  of  her  own  flesh  and  blood, 
which  she  has  carried,  borne,  nursed,  and  cared  for 
from  darling  infancy — there  is  a  concentrated  joy  grow- 
ing out  of  a  mother's  relations  to  her  child,  by  which 
superior  children  confer  on  their  mothers  the  very  acme 
of  bliss. 

On  the  contrary,  nothing  will  aggravate  a  mother's 
feelings  as  deeply,  and  as  perpetually,  as  children  that 
are  cross-grained,  ultra,  imbecile,  cunning,  and  selfish. 
Mothers,  have  you  ever  duly  considered  this  point  ? 
And  now  that  your  attention  is  called  to  it,  revolve  it 
over  in  your  minds.  Is  any  pain,  any  sacrifice,  which 
will  improve  the  original  stamp  of  your  children,  too 
great  to  make,  by  way  of  conferring  this  source  of 
pleasure  on  yourselves  ?  For  your  own  sake — mere- 
ly as  a  matter  of  selfish  interest — what  can  you  do, 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  your  lives,  which  will 
confer  more  and  more  exalted  happiness  upon  your- 
selves ? 

But  you  are  not  the  only  ones  to  be  blessed  by  good, 
and  cursed  by  bad  children  .  To  say  nothing  of  the 


THEIR    COMMISSION.  151 

Happiness  of  your  husbands,  and  society  at  large — 
points  which  involve  a  great  amount  of  happiness — 
consider  for  a  moment  the  bearing  of  this  momentous 
taw  on  the  destinies  of  your  children  themselves.  It  is 
left  for  you  to  decide,  whether  your  children  are  to  be 
cursed  with  a  malignant  disposition,  or  blessed  with  a 
happy  one — whether  they  are  to  be  the  indwelling  ol 
any  or  all  the  virtues,  or  of  any  or  all  the  vices,  and 
which.  And,  what  is  more,  you  are  COMPELLED  to  de- 
cide this  matter.  Willing  or  unwilling,  you  are  obliged 
to  stamp  upon  your  prospective  offspring  the  impress 
of  goodness  and  talents  on  the  one  hand,  or  sinfulness 
and  misery  on  the  other.  It  is  not  one  of  those  matters 
which  can  receive  the  go-by.  A  NECESSITY  exists.  If 
you  do  not  determine  this  matter  for  yourselves,  you 
must  determine  it  by  leaving  it  to  its  own  course. 
And  oh,  with  what  ecstasy  of  maternal  joy  should  you 
hail  this  ordinance  of  nature  !  Look — behold  !  heaven 
opens — a  commission  is  sent  down  from  the  august 
courts  of  eternity,  directed  and  delivered  to  you  in  your 
own  persons,  conferring  on  you  the  highest  prerogative 
of  heaven — that  of  bearing  good  or  bad  children,  as 
you  will,  and  possessed  of  just  such  kinds  of  goodness 
or  badness  as  you  please.  As  rulers  and  presidents  are 
empowered  to  form  their  own  cabinets,  so  you  are  both 
empowered  and  commanded  to  form  the  cabinet  of  your 
children's  mentality.  And  infinitely  does  your  power 
exceed  that  of  kings  and  courts  ;  and  if  any  thing  on 
earth  should  fill  you  with  joy,  surely  this  should.  An- 
gels might  fe^"  themselves  infinitely  honored  to  fulfill 
}  mir  maternal  commiss/^n. — to  wield  the  destiny  you 
wield — to  form  immortal  spirits  into  whatever  image 
they  chose-.  What  other  ends  of  life  are  not  the  merest 


152  APPEAL    71     MOTHERS. 

trifles  when  compared  with  this  ?  Should  you  not  con- 
centrate, in  this  grand  function  of  the  female,  every 
energy  of  your  being?  Should  you  not,  all  the  way  up 
from  girlhood,  have  a  '•  single  eye"  to  this,  your  para- 
mount duty  and  destiny  ?  Should  you  not  make  every 
possible  preparation,  before  these  relations  overtake 
you,  to  fulfill  them  aright  when  they  do  come  ?  Prepa- 
ration for  maternity — should  not  this  be  the  grand  pre- 
paration of  every  young  woman  before  marriage,  and 
its  fulfillment  "the  one  thing  needful"  after  marriage  ? 
Now,  the  WEDDING  is  the  great  object  of  our  young  wo- 
men. They  put  forth  every  energy  to  secure  this  object, 
until  it  is  attained  ;  and  after  the  great  nuptial  day  is 
appointed,  what  hurrying,  and  bustling,  and  buying,  and 
fixing,  and  sewing,  and  worrying  !  If  a  king  were  about 
to  visit  them,  that  would  be  the  merest  trifle,  compared 
with  the  advent  of  this,  their  earthly  Messiah.  Every 
thing  else  must  give  way.  This  must  be,  not  first  among 
equals,  but  the  VERY  first.  Yet  the  wedding  day,  and  eve-n 
the  marriage  itself,  is  only  the  outside  gate  to  this  splendid 
mansion  of  woman's  being.  But  for  maternity,  matrimony 
•would  be  a  comparative  trifle  to  woman  ;  and  as  many 
thousand  times  more  pains,  and  labors,  nnd  expenses  should 
be  incurred,  in  fitting  out  this  paradisiacal  mansion,  than 
in  constructing  this  outside  gate,  so  every  young  wo- 
man, from  the  first  dawn  of  womanhood,  should  make  it 
her  labor  of  all  labors,  her  preparation  of  all  prepara- 
tions, her  anticipation  of  all  anticipations,  her  end  of  all 
ends,  her  alpha  and  omega,  her  internal  and  external, 
her  all  and  in  all.  her  very  life  nnd  soul,  to  fit  herself  for 
discharging  these  maternal  relations.  And  after  she  hag 
entered  the  gate  of  marriage,  and  has  enthroned  herself 
and  been  enthroned  l^v  her  husband,  qu^en  of  this  ma- 


THEIR    EXALTED    OFFICE.  153 

tcrnal  palace,  oh,  how  should  every  energy  of  her  being 
be  directed  and  expended  upon  the  formation  of  that 
dear  prospective  spirit — that  germ  of  humanity — that 
son  or  daughter  of  God  himself — that  image,  and  like- 
ness, and  embodiment  of  divinity  !  She  is  called  upon 
to  become  a  co worker  with  the  Creator  of  the  human 
mind  and  soul.  He  places  the  materials  of  humanity  at 
her  disposal,  and  requires  her  to  work  them  up  into  such 
human  subjects  as  she  may  choose.  He  has  ordained 
the  maternal  laws,  and  extolled  her  as  their  executor. 
He  has  done  all  that  even  a  God  COULD  do,  to  enable 
every  human  mother  to  bring  forth  perfect  human  be- 
ings. He  commands  them,  in  the  name  of  this  maternal 
law,  and  entreats  them  by  all  the  yearnings  of  a  mother's 
love,  to  endow  their  offspring  with  all  that  is  lovely,  all 
that  is  noble,  and  all  that  is  great,  while  He  adjures 
them,  by  the  same  means,  not  to  corrupt  their  pure 
spirits  with  wrangling  passions,  nor  cripple  them  with 
intellectual  or  moral  incapacity.  Awake,  O  prospec- 
tive mothers,  from  this  ignorance,  and  stupidity,  and 
foolery  of  the  past,  to  the  exalted  destiny  thus  imposed 
upon  you  !  Long  enough — oh,  too  long — have  you  tri- 
fled away  your  time,  and  your  feelings — your  whole 
souls — in  chasing  this  phantom,  Fashion,  than  which  no- 
thing could  equally  unfit  you  for  bearing  fine  children  ! 
Satan  himself,  aided  and  abetted  by  all  his  privy  coun- 
cilors of  malignity,  could  not  have  devised  or  executed 
a  system  of  female  education,  and  habits,  and  associa- 
tions every  way,  as  utterly  ruinous  to  the  health,  as  de- 
praving to  the  morals,  as  deteriorating  to  the  intellect, 
as  that  system  imposed  on  woman  by  the  fashions,  and 
pursued  by  our  middling  and  upper-classed  females,  as 
if  it  werf  the  only  real  object  of  life.  What  we  have 


154  APPEAL    1C    MOTHERS. 

said  about  tight-lacing,  illustrates  this  remark  in  one 
particular,  and  nearly  every  thing  which  fashionable 
females  essay  to  do  or  become,  is  of  the  same  child- 
ruining  piece.  How  long  shall  these  things  be  ?  How 
long  shall  women  spoil  themselves,  spoil  their  issue,  and 
spoil  the  rjace,  just  to  be  fashionable?  How  long  shall 
woman  waste  her  whole  being  on  these  insignificant 
nonentities,  when  such  momentous  destinies  are  hers  to 
wield  ?  If  woman's  office  in  the  economy  of  nature 
were  insignificant,  this  expending  of  her  time,  her  mo- 
ney, her  very  self,  in  ribboning,  and  padding,  and  bus- 
tling, and  curling,  and  painting,  and  flirting,  and  playing 
fool,  might  pass  unrebuked  ;  but  since  she  fills  an  office 
more  exalted,  and  wields  destinies  rr.ore  momentous 
than  archangels,  what  earthly  language  can  express  her 
folly  or  her  guilt  ?  If  to  bury  one  small  talent  is  wick- 
ed, oh,  how  awfully  criminal  to  turn  such  a  talent  to 
such  a  use  !  Girls,  young  women,  bearing  women — 
woman  as  a  sex — do  be  persuaded,  entreated,  implored 
to  learn,  and  then  fulfill  your  maternal  duties  and  des- 
tiny. Our  world  is  soon  to  be  regenerated — the  decree 
has  gone  forth — the  millennium,  ordained  from  everlast- 
ing, is  at  hand.  But  a  little  longer  is  our  world  to  be 
scourged  with  physical  suffering,  so  universal,  so  aggra- 
vated, with  intellect  so  crippled  and  distorted,  with  vices 
so  many  and  so  monstrous,  with  all  the  godlike  capabili- 
ties of  humanity  thus  perverted  and  depraved.  Words 
utterly  fail  to  express  either  the  inherent  capabilities  and 
perfections  of  humanity,  as  it  came  from  the  hand  of  its 
Maker,  or  it*  present  state  of  corruption  and  distortion. 
But  the  regenerating  process  has  commenced.  Repub- 
licanism in  this  country  opened  the  first  seal.  It  snap- 
ped the  fetters,  in  which  the  human  mind  and  body  had 


WHAT    THE    RACE    DEMANDS    OF    THEM.  155 

been  bound  from  the  first.  It  begat  a  spirit  of  scrutiny 
and  inquiry,  which  is  eventuating  in  the  rejection  of 
man-destroying  errors  and  application  of  man-improving 
truths.  It  set  the  mighty  car  of  human  improvement, 
freighted  with  every  conceivable  facility  of  human  hap- 
piness, in  rapid  motion.  It  snatched  the  French  crown 
from  its  ignoble  wearer,  "and  a  nation  was  born  in  a  day." 
Republicanism,  and  with  it  the  highest  happiness  of  the 
mighty  many,  is  now  the  world's  irrevocable  destiny. 
Heretofore,  society  has  not  been  in  a  fit  state  to  render 
highly-organized  human  beings  happy.  Too  much  sick- 
ness and  vice — too  many  graters  of  all  the  finer  suscep- 
tibilities of  our  nature — have  every  where  abounded,  to 
allow  a  high  order  of  human  beings  to  enjoy  themselves, 
because  there  was  so  much  more  to  lacerate  their  keen, 
pure,  delicate  susceptibilities,  and  torture  high-toned 
moral  feeling,  and  outrage  correct  and  powerful  intel- 
lectual perceptions,  than  to  gratify  those  thus  exquisitely 
organized.  But  this  will  soon  have  passed  away  for- 
ever. Society  will  soon  be  in  a  state  to  delight,  instead 
of  torturing,  those  thus  delicately  constituted.  What 
we  therefore  now  require,  is  highly-organized  children, 
adapted  to  this  progress  of  the  race,  and  calculated  to  put 
it  upon  a  still  higher  pinnacle  of  goodness  and  happiness. 
And  you,  prospective  mothers,  must  furnish  them.  To 
you — you  ALONE — we  look.  From  no  other  source  can 
this,  the  great  salvation  come.  Others  can  carry  forward 
other  departments  of  human  reform  and  improvement. 
The  temperance  reform,  and  prison  reform,  and  govern- 
mental reform — the  social,  religious,  educational,  and 
other  reforms — will  be  vigorously  prosecuted  by  others; 
but  it  remains  for  YOU  to  regenerate  and  purify  the  origi- 
nal stock  of  hunwnity — to  uproot  the  very  germs  of  de- 


156  DELIVERY    MADS    EASY. 

pravity,  and  plant  in  their  stead  the  seeds  of  virtue  and 
talent.  Oh,  mothers,  sleep  no  longer  over  this  momen- 
tous subject.  We  implore  you  to  render  our  earth 
again  more  lovely  than  Eden,  and  its  occupants  more 
holy  and  happy  than  those  of  Paradise.  First,  then, 
apply  every  energy  of  your  being  to  the  acquisition  of 
light  on  this  subject.  Learn  precisely  what  your  des- 
tiny requires  you  to  do,  and  then  fulfill  it.  Address 
your  whole  selves,  soul  and  body,  to  their  fulfillment — • 
to  the  bringing  forth  and  bringing  up  magnificent  chil- 
dren— and  then  proclaim  these  things  to  every  prospec- 
tive mother  whom  you  can  possibly  reach.  Let  your 
one  passion  be,  not  rich  furniture,  or  fashionable  dresses, 
but  FINE  CHILDREN,  and  a  regenerated  world  will  pour 
forth  thank-offerings  and  hosannas,  in  their  highest 
strains,  here  and  hereafter,  forever. 


SECTION  IV. 

DELIVERY ITS    PAINS    LESSENED. 

435.       SEVERE    LABOR-PAINS    UNNATURAL    AND    AVO1IABLB- 

Though  the  great  thought  of  this  book — namely,  rhat 
the  states  of  the  mother's  mind  and  body  before  birth 
similarly  affect  offspring — is  now  developed,  so  that  we 
might  with  propriety  here  suspend  it,  yet  a  few  general 
remarks  on  DELIVERY  AND  NURSING  will  doubtless  enable 
prospective  mothers  to  lighten  materially  those  agonic 
ing  pains  too  often  consequent  on  childbirth,  and  relieve 
themselves  oe  man)  of  the  burdens  of  nursing.  Not 


SEVERE    PAIN3    UNNECESSARY.  157 

unfrequently,  these  pains  are  more  terribly  severe  than 
those  of  death  itself,  and  in  general,  in  civic  life,  they 
are  indeed  dreadful. 

But  this  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  The  pains  themselves 
do  far  less  injury  than  the  DREAD  of  them,  because  the 
former  pass  off  with  the  mother's  confinement,  while  the 
latter  stamps  the  impress  of  fear  and  terror  upon  the 
PRIMITIVE  CONSTITUTION  of  the  child  itself,  which  imbit- 
ters  its  whole  life  with  indefinite  apprehension  of  impend- 
ing calamity,  when  there  is  none.  He  who  can  essen- 
tially mitigate  the  pains  and  dread  of  parturition,  will 
render  incalculable  service  to  mankind. 

But  to  dwell  on  the  FACT  of  these  pains,  or  on  the  in- 
jury they  occasion  mothers  and  children,  is  not  our  pur- 
pose, because  they  are  too  palpably  apparent  to  require 
it.  We  therefore  pass  to  the  inquiry, 

ARE    THEY    NECESSARY  ? 

Many  think  them  ordained  by  God,  and  rendered 
inevitable  by  the  fall.  They  interpret,  "  I  will  greatly 
multiply  thy  sorrow  and  thy  conception  :  in  sorrow 
shall  thou  bring  forth  children  ;"  as  pronouncing  special 
judgment  upon  Eve,  and  through  her  upon  universal 
woman,  for  tempting  Adam  ;  and  hence  infer  that  there 
is  no  obviating  them. 

But  is  this  opinion  tenable  ?  Not  at  all ;  either  in  the 
light  of  philosophy  or  fact.  It  is  in  direct  conflict  with 
both.  How  ungodly  to  sentence  all  women  for  one  sin 
of  one  woman  !  Or  if  the  Deity  should  pass  so  unright- 
eous a  sentence,  would  he  not  EXECUTE  it?  "Hath  he 
said,  and  shall  he  not  fulfill?"  Since  this  sentence  was 
passed  upon  all  women  ALIKE,  of  course  {here  is  no 
absolute  noed,  as  for  as  this  sentence  is  concerned,  that 
14 


158  DELIVERY    MADE    EASY 

one  should  suffer  any  more  than  another.  If  these  labor- 
pains  were  really  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty,  would  he  be 
so  doubly  unjust  as  to  impose,  as  a  special  judgment,  so 
much  MORE  pain  on  one  than  on  another  ?  And  the 
fact  that  some  have  so  easy  a  delivery,  is  positive 
proof  that,  in  spite  of  this  judgment,  ALL  might  have  as 
easy  times  as  ANY  now  do.  Sinct  the  labor-pains  of 
some  women  are  so  trifling  as  not  to  be  worthy  of  a 
second  thought,  therefore  this  sentence,  passed  upon 
those  of  easy  delivery  just  as  much  as  upon  any  others 
will  not  prevent  EVERY  woman  from  having  .as  easy  a 
delivery  as  any  woman  that  ever  has  lived  or  may  live. 
This  idea  that  women  are  COMPELLED  to  bear  children 
in  sorrow,  is  contrary  to  nature,  disapproved  by  fact, 
and  a  practical  libel  on  the  character  and  government 
of  God :  nor  can  any  reasonable  construction  be  put 
upon  this  passage  other  than  as  simply  declaring  what 
was  then  a  fact  ;  for  if  it  curses  woman  with  severe 
labor-pains,  it  curses  ALL  WOMEN  EQUALLY,  whereas 
some  have  but  little  pain,  and  a  rapid  recovery. 


NATURAL    DELIVERY    EASY. 


Though  I  do  not  believe  in  "  childbirth  without  pain," 
yet  I  do  believe  that  where  nature  is  allowed  her  per- 
fect work,  these  pains  will  be  too  slight  to  deserve  a 
moment's  consideration,  and  especially  to  awaken  pre- 
vious apprehension.  One  of  my  female  friends  says,  she 
"  rather  bear  a  child  than  have  a  tooth  drawn."  I  have 
seen  many  women  who  have  done  all  their  own  nursing, 
and  all  the  housework  for  their  families  during  their 
confinement.  How  slight  the  sufferings  of  many  Irish 
and  German  women  at  these  times  !  How  many  of 
them  are  up  and  about  house  the  very  next  day  ! 


l>i     VIGOROUS    HEALTH.  159 

Women  in  uncivilized  life  suffer  still  less,  and  recover 
even  sooner.  Dr.  Rush,  speaking  of  child-bearing 
among  the  Indians,  says,  "  that  nature  is  their  only  mid- 
wife ;  their  labors  are  short,  and  accompanied  with  little 
pain  ;  each  woman  is  delivered  in  a  private  cabin,  with- 
out so  much  as  one  of  her  own  sex  to  attend  her :  after 
washing  herself  in  cold  water,  she  returns  in  a  few  days 
to  her  usual  employment ;  so  that  she  knows  nothing 
of  those  accidents  which  proceed  from  the  carelessness 
or  ill  management  of  midwives  or  doctors,  or  the  weak- 
ness which  arises  from  a  month's  confinement." 

"  The  wonderful  facility  with  which  the  Indian  women 
bring  forth  their  children,"  say  Lewis  and  Clark,  in  their 
well-known  journal,  "  seems  rather  some  benevolent 
gift  of  nature,  in  exempting  them  from  pains  which  their 
savage  state  would  render  doubly  grievous,  than  any 
result  of  habit.  One  of  the  women  who  had  been  lead- 
ing two  of  our  pack-horses,  halted  at  a  rivulet  about  a 
mile  behind,  and  sent  on  the  two  horses  by  a  female 
friend.  On  inquiring  of  one  of  the  Indian  men  the  cause 
of  her  detention,  he  answered,  with  great  appearance 
of  unconcern,  that  she  had  just  stopped  to  lie-in,  and 
would  soon  overtake  us.  In  fact,  we  were  astonished 
to  see  her  in  about  an  hour's  time  come  on  with  her 
new-born  infant,  and  pass  us  on  her  way  to  the  camp, 
apparently  in  perfect  health." 

Washington  Irving,  in  his  work  entitled  Astoria,  re- 
lates a  similar  incident  in  the  following  language  :  "The 
squaw  of  Pierre  Dorion  (who,  with  her  husband,  was 
attached  to  a  party  traveling  over  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains in  winter-time,  the  ground  being  covered  with 
several  feet  of  snow)  was  suddenly  taken  in  labor,  and 
enriched  her  husband  with  another  child.  As  the  forti- 


160  DELIVERY    MADE    EASY 

tude  and  good  conduct  of  the  woman  had  gained  for 
her  the  good  will  of  the  party,  her  situation  caused  con- 
cern and  perplexity.  Pierre,  however,  treated  the  mat- 
ter as  an  occurrence  that  could  soon  be  arranged,  and 
need  cause  no  delay.  He  remained  by  his  wife  in  the 
camp,  with  his  other  children  and  his  horse,  and  pro- 
mised soon  to  rejoin  the  main  body  on  their  march.  In 
the  course  of  the  following  morning  the  Dorion  family 
made  its  appearance.  Pierre  came  trudging  in  advance, 
followed  by  his  valued,  though  skeleton  steed,  on  which 
was  mounted  his  squaw  with  the  new-born  infant  in  her 
arms,  and  her  boy  of  two  years  old  wrapped  in  a  blank- 
et, and  slung  on  her  side.  The  mother  looked  as  un- 
concerned as  if  nothing  had  happened  to  her  ;  so  easy 
is  nature  in  her  operations  in  the  wilderness,  when  free 
from  the  enfeebling  refinements  of  luxury  and  the  tarn 
pering  appliances  of  art." 

Mr.  Laurence  also  tells  us  that  "  the  very  easy  labors 
of  Negresses,  native  Americans,  and  other  women  in  a 
savage  state,  have  been  often  noticed  by  travelers. 
This  point  is  not  explainable  by  any  prerogative  of 
physical  formation,  for  the  pelvis  is  rather  smaller  (by 
itself  an  unfavorable  circumstance)  in  these  dark-color- 
ed races,  than  in  the  European  and  other  white  people. 
Simple  diet,  constant  and  laborious  exertion,  give  to 
these  children  of  nature  a  hardiness  of  constitution,  and 
exemption  from  most  of  the  ills  which  afflict  the  indo- 
lent and  luxurious  females  of  civilized  societies.  In  the 
latter,  however,  the  hard-working  women  of  the  lower 
classes  in  the  country,  often  suffer  as  little  from  child- 
birth as  those  of  any  other  race." 

Stevens,  speaking  of  the  Araucanian  Indians,  says, 
that  "  a  mother,  immediately  or.  her  delivery,  takes  her 


BY    HEALTH.  161 

child,  and,  going  down  to  the  nearest  stream  ol  water 
washes  herself  and  it,  and  then  returns  to  the  labors  of 
the  station." 

That  one  cause  of  the  easy  delivery  of  these  robust 
women  is  the  small  heads  of  their  children,  consequent 
on  the  deficient  mentality  of  both  parents,  is  undoubted; 
yet  does  not  the  larger  chest  and  shoulders,  consequent 
on  the  larger  bones,  muscles,  and  vital  apparatus  of 
these  children  of  the  forest,  render  their  parturition  as 
difficult,  in  itself,  as  the  larger  heads  of  the  children  of 
civilized  life  ?  Is  not  the  chief  difference  in  the  MOTHERS  ? 
Is  not.  the  great  cause  of  these  excessive  pains  of  child- 
birth in  the  FEEBLENESS  of  civilized  women,  and  the 
easy  parturition  of  Irish,  German,  and  Indian  women,  in 
the  ROBUST  HEALTH  of  the  latter  ?  Its  cause  is  not  that 
woman  in  the  higher  walks  of  life  is  doomed  to  "  bring 
forth  in  sorrow,"  but  that  she  OUTRAGES  EVERY  PRINCIPLE 
OF  HEALTH,  from  the  very  cradle.  Else  why  this  dif- 
ference against  city  ladies,  as  compared  with  healthy 
country  women  ?  Though  some  robust  women  have 
hard  times,  and  some  sickly  ones  rather  easy  ones,  be~ 
cause  of  the  difference  in  their  forms,  the  size  of  th 
father,  and  especially  of  his  head,  yet,  in  general,  the 
more  healthy  any  given  woman,  the  more  easy  her  de- 
livery, and  as  her  health  declines  her  labor  becomes 
more  painful  and  dangerous. 

Now  I  press  the  great  fact  here  involved  upon  the 
observation  and  reflection  of  women,  and  submit  whe- 
ther health  does  not  lessen  the  pains  of  delivery,  and 
feebleness  of  constitution  aggravate  them  ?  Remains 
there  any  doubt  on  this  point  ?  Is  it  not  founded  in  rea- 
son, and  sustained  by  fact  ? 

The  general  fact  that  health  lessens  labor-pains  is  too 
14* 


i62  DELIVERY    RENDERED    PAINFUL 

palpable  to  require  proof,  yet  few  realize  to  wnat  EX- 
TENT these  pains  can  be  diminished,  by  observing  the 
physiolog-cal  laws.  I  can  read  in  nature  no  ABSOLUTE 
NECESSITY  for  much  pain.  On  the  contrary,  all  hei 
functions  are  pleasurable ;  and  shall  this  form  an  exemp- 
tion ?  Unless  she  has  made  provision  for  rendering 
this  function  more  agreeable  than  painful,  she  has  not 
been  true  to  herself  and  her  uniform  laws.  If  even  sav- 
ages, with  all  their  necessary  privations  and  exposures 
of  health,  can  bear  children  with  so  little  suffering,  how 
much  easier  could  civilized  women,  aided  by  all  the 
lights  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  render  this  opera- 
tion. The  idea  that  civic  life  is  necessarily  detrimental 
to  health,  is  preposterous.  All  the  knowledge,  property, 
advantages,  every  thing  we  possess  over  them,  confer 
on  us  the  MEANS  of  becoming  more  healthy  than  they. 
If  we  are  not  so,  ours  is  the  fault. 

CAUSES  OF  SEVERE  AND  DANGEROUS  LABOR. 

Since,  then,  severe  and  dangerous  labor  is  not  the 
ordinance  of  nature,  by  what  is  it  caused  ?  By  those 

OUTRAGES  OF  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE   AND  HEALTH  perpetrated 

by  women  in  civilized  life.  And  most  of  them  are  in- 
flicted by  that  tyrant  goddess.  FASHION. 

The  injury  done  to  children  by  tight-lacing,  has  al- 
ready been  shown.  Its  aggravation  of  labor-pains  is 
incalculable.  It  fills  the  whole  system  with  fever  and 
disease,  and  especially  the  female  organs  ;  and  than  this, 
what  could  more  effectually  enhance  all  the  pains  and 
perils  of  child-bearing?  It  stifles  heart,  lungs,  and 
stomach,  and  thus  so  exhausts  the  vital  powers  as  to 
leave  too  small  a  supply  of  STRENGTH  to  carry  the  pa- 
lierit  through  this  peri  d.  In  conjunction  with  load- 


BY    BAL    PHYSICAL    HABITS.  163 

ing  the  hips  with  enormous  loads  of  surplus  clothes,  it 
relaxes  and  disorders  the  muscles  employed  in  this  func- 
tion, and  aggravates  the  pains  and  dangers  of  parturi- 
tion beyond  calculation. 

SEDENTARY   HABITS. 

The  want  of  fresh,  invigorating  air,  the  excessive 
warmth  of  our  coal-heated  rooms,  the  ruinous  posture 
of  seamstresses,  and  indeed  of  most  of  our  women,  the 
imperfect  circulation,  digestion,  perspiration,  and  exer- 
cise of  almost  all  American  women,  aggravate,  in  the 
most  effectual  manner  possible,  the  sufferings  of  this 
period.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  devise  a  course 
every  way  calculated  to  render  labor  dreadful  and 
dangerous,  as  the  habits  of  our  women  from  the  very 
cradle  now  are.  Late  hours,  late  rising,  excessive  in- 
tensity of  feeling,  bad  eating,  bare  arms  and  necks 
thin  shoes,  refusal  to  labor,  while  the  abdomen  is  made 
to  sweat  like  rain  with  supernumerary  skirts,  and  a 
thousand  like  enervating  habits,  completely  ruin  the 
constitution  of  our  women,  and  they  pay  the  dreadful 
forfeit  in  "  the  perils  of  childbirth."  These  and  kindred 
causes  disclose  an  effectual 

436.       MODE    OF    OBVIATING    LABOR-PAINS. 

ANIMAL  VIGOR  is  the  great  guarantee  against  them. 
A  powerful  constitution  will  proportionally  obviate  all 
danger  and  lighten  these  pains,  so  that  you  can  render 
this  function  more  and  still  more  easy  in  proportion  as 
you  improve  your  health.  Observe,  that  this  principle 
involves  a  complete  remedy. 

Reference  is  no .  now  had   tc   'mproving  the  health 


164  DELIVERY    MADE    EASY 

during  pregnancy  merely,  but  mainly  during  LIFE.  The 
former  will  aid  as  far  as  it  goes,  yet  this  is  the  grand 
point  we  would  rivet  upon  your  minds.  PROVIDE  BE- 
FOREHAND against  these  pains  by  invigorating  all  the 
bodily  functions.  This  provisionary  process  should  be 
begun  in  girlhood,  and  continued  till  the  child-bearing 
period  ceases.  The  education  of  girls  should  be  con- 
ducted with  SPECIAL  reference  to  this  point.  Since  girls 
should  be  educated  with  primary  reference  to  fitting 
them  to  bear  fine  children418,  and  since  those  very  con- 
ditions of  maternal  health  requisite  to  bear  healthy 
children  facilitate  and  lighten  delivery,  of  course  their 
education  should  include  fitting  them  for  easy  delivery. 
But  to  canvass  a  few  items. 

A    VIGOROUS    MUSCULAR    SYSTEM. 

Already  has  the  requisition  for  powerful  muscles  in 
mothers  been  pointed  out  as  a  means  of  endowing  their 
offspring  with  a  strong  locomotive  apparatus.  This 
muscular  system  is  the  chief  instrumentality  by  which 
delivery  is  effected.  By  what  means  is  the  child  urged 
from  its  pent-up  inclosure  in  the  womb  through  that 
narrow  pelvic  orifice,  and,  in  s>pite  of  all  other  obstruc- 
tions, forced  into  the  world  ?  Solely  by  MU-SCULAR  CON- 
TRACTION. Then,  other  things  being  equal,  will  not 
delivery  be  more  and  more  easy,  the  more  powerful 
these  muscles  ? 

And  what  is  it  that  causes  prolonged  and  difficult 
labor  ?  Mainly  insufficiency  of  these  muscles.  They 
are  too  weak  to  expel  the  child.  Yet,  if  allowed  to 
remain,  it  would  grow  till  too  large  to  be  expelled,  so 
that  nature  labors  and  does  her  utmost,  often  for  man/ 


BY    A    VIGOROUS    MUSCULAR    SYSTEM.  165 

long  days  and  nights  in  succession,  but  in  vain.  Every 
labor-pain  strains  these  muscles  to  their  utmost  tension, 
yet  even  then  does  not  make  progress.  As  a  weak 
team,  stuck  with  a  heavy  load,  strains  every  nerve,  yet 
each  trial,  while  it  still  further  exhausts,  eaves  the  load 
as  fast  as  before,  so  every  pain  fatigues  these  muscles, 
but  fails  to  advance  the  child,  and  recourse  must  be  had  to 
that  horrible  alternative  of  artificial  delivery  by  instru- 
ments ;  whereas,  if  the  mother's  muscles  had  not  been 
so  weak,  they  would  have  controlled  with  such  power 
as  to  have  expelled  the  burden.  Ninety-nine  cases  in 
every  hundred  of  excessive  labor-pains,  are  consequent 
on  weak  muscles  or  debilitated  health  in  mothers.  In- 
deed, EVERY  case  has  one  or  both  these  causes.  All 
nature's  operations  are  PERFECT.  Not  one  case  in  mil- 
lions— not  one  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time — 
would  ever  occur,  if  nature  were  allowed  her  perfect 
work. 

Wrong  presentations  may  be  cited  as  exceptions,  yet 
they  are  not.  Every  single  instance  of  wrong  presen- 
tation is  caused  by  some  INTERFERENCE  WITH  NATURE, 
and  can  therefore  be  avoided  by  woman's  observing 
the  laws  of  nature.  Who  ever  heard  of  them  in  unciv- 
ilized life,  or  among  healthy  Irish  or  German  women  ? 
But  do  they  not  occur  most  frequently  in  ''  high  life" — • 
among  our  fashionable  LADIES  ?  Why  ?  Because  they 
depart  farthest  from  nature's  requirements,  and  violate 
the  laws  of  health  most,  whereas  they  might  and  should 
be  the  most  healthy,  because  they  enjoy  the  greatest 
advantages  for  promoting  health.  This  wrong  presen- 
tation is  a  natural  consequence  of  abuse  of  health,  and 
might  be  wholly  avoided,  unless  this  abuse  were  per- 
fectly outrageou?  and  long  continued. 


166  DELIVERY    MADE    EASY 

What  our  women,  what  our  girls  require  more  than 
any  thing  else,  by  way  of  preparing  them  for  easy  de- 
livery, is  VIGOROUS  MUSCULAR  EXERCISE,  SUch  as  .  llOUSC- 

work,  gymnastic  exercise,  invigorating  walks,  rambling 
over  hill  and  dale,  and  every  thing  calculated  to  develop 
their  MUSCULAR  systems.  Not  that  I  would  make  them 
mere  kitchen  drudges,  but  I  would  have  them  work 
right  hard  several  hours  daily,  just  for  exercise  and 
health,  and  this  will  do  up  all  the  housework  really  re- 
quisite to  be  done.  Washing  is  excellent  exercise. 
And  every  woman,  in  high  life  and  low,  who  has  not 
already  ruined  herself  by  fashionable  indolence,  should 
take  right  hold  of  hard  work  till  comfortably  tired  ;  for, 
besides  developing  her  muscles,  it  will  promote  all  her 
vital  functions. 

Women  should  especially  PLAY  much.  This  is  as 
natural  to  them  as  breathing — rendered  so  in  order  to 
develop  their  muscular  and  vital  powers.  How  strong 
this  propensity  in  girls?  Nor  would  it  decrease,  bu 
rather  increase,  in  middle  age,  if  women  were  not  gen- 
erally crushed  by  unhappy  marriages,  the  death  of 
children,  broken  constitutions,  etc.  Nothing  is  more 
promotive  of  health,  and  therefore  of  easy  delivery,  as 
Well  as  of  briskness  and  snap  in  children. 

Dancing,  too,  is  most  excellent  exercise  for  girls  and 
women.  It  may  be  excessive,  or  unreasonable,  and 
therefore  injurious ;  but  properly  practiced,  nothing  is 
better.  Oh,  I  do  wish  some  of  this  prim,  sedate,  stiff- 
jointed,  inert,  ladified,  starched-up  artificiality,  could  be 
shook  out  of  our  women  !  They  think  they  must  be 
iust  so  exact,  and  precise,  and  citified — must  check 
every  rising  of  that  wild,  free,  frolicksome  disposition  so 
constitutional  in  girls — must  always  ride  in  spring  and 


1IGET    FEMALE    EDUCATION  167 

covered  carriages — must  never  be  caught  climbing 
fences,  or  ranging  fields,  or  at  work  in  the  kitchen- 
must  rarely  laugh,  but  only  smile — must  restrain  all  the 
gushing  sympathies  of  their  nature — and  must  be  pas- 
sive nonentities,  except  in  fine  sewing  and  on  the  piano. 
Oh,  I  abominate  this  strait-jacket  restriction,  under  which 
our  women  are  brought  up,  because  it  ruins  them  as 
mothers,  and  enhances  all  the  sufferings  of  childbirth. 
It  just  about  spoils  them.  Come,  women,  snap  these 
fashionable  restraints,  and  give  yourselves  that  freedom 
so  promotive  of  the  specific  functions  of  your  sex418. 
Do  take  exercise.  Suit  yourselves  as  to  the  what,  how, 
and  when,  but  take  exercise  in  some  form,  and  a  great 
amount  of  it.  This  will  so  strengthen  your  muscles,  that 
when  you  come  to  your  accouchement,  your  uterine  and 
abdominal  muscles  will  play  their  part  to  perfection,  so 
.hat  a  few  efficient  pains  will  deliver  you. 

437.       DEVELOPING   THE    MUSCLES    OF    GIRLS. 

And  you  who  have  these  dreadful  times,  be  entreated 
not  to  put  your  girls  into  the  way  of  suffering  in  like 
manner,  by  confining  them  within  doors,  and  bringing 
them  up  so  very  delicately  and  fashionably.  I  have  al- 
ready discussed  the  necessity  of  girls  taking  muscular 
exercise,  in  order  to  develop  their  vital  apparatus — but 
I  now  urge  it  on  the  ground  of  its  LIGHTENING  THE  PAINS 
OF  DELIVERY.  Make  them  work,  and  work  HARD.  For- 
bid them  sitting  much  for  the  purpose  of  sewing,  music, 
study,  or  any  thing  else.  Keep  them  much  out  of  doors. 
Supply  them  with  small  hoes,  spades,  and  hatchets,  that 
they  may  cultivate  flowers,  gardens,  shrubbery,  etc., 
and  learn  the  use  of  tools  ;  and  "allow  them  to  scale 
fences  and  climb  trees.  Only  give  them  a  chance,  and 


168  DELIVERY    MADE    EASY. 

they  will  find  ways  and  means  to  take  exercise  in  any 
required  abundance,  and  this  will  guarantee  them  a  safe 
and  easy  delivery. 

The  entire  system  of  female  education  is  fundamen- 
tally wrong,  and  MUST  be  remodeled.  Girls  must  be 
taught  THINGS  more,  and  books  less — must  be  SHOWH 
NATURE,  and  be  educated  ON  FOOT,  instead  of  being  con- 
fined to  the  school-house  and  the  piano.  Make  them 
children  of  nature,  not  of  art.  Let  them  be  girls  till 
twenty,  nor  once  think  about  rendering  themselves  at- 
tractive by  dress  or  starched-up  manners.  Develop 
their  BODIES  FIRST,  and  this  will  give  them  clear  and 
strong  minds,  as  well  as  obviate  all  the  perils  and  most 
of  the  pains  of  childbirth.  Oh,  when  will  the  true  nature 
of  woman  be  understood  and  developed  by  education  I 
May  this  book  aid  the  result. 

438.     THE  MIDWIFE'S  OFFICE. 

My  remarks  here  shall  be  brief,  but  pertinent.  Let 
NATURE  do  all,  and  art  "  stand  silent  by."  All  noise, 
and  bustle,  and  parade,  have  a  most  injurious  influence 
on  the  mother's  mind,  and  thus  retard  delivery,  by  awa- 
kening her  fears.  Making  a  great  ado  does  no  sort  of 
good — does  not  promote  delivery  one  iota — but  it  does 
excite  the  mother's  fears,  and  unnerve  her,  and  this  ren- 
ders her  labor  far  less  efficient  and  speedy. 

The  mother's  first  requisite  at  this  period,  is  RESOLU- 
TION. She  should  be  encouraged  to  grapple  with  her  des- 
n'ny  with  the  spirit  and  determination  of  a  heroine.  She 
should  feel  that  she  CAN  AND  WILL  discharge  her  burden, 
and  that  without  any  great  difficulty.  Instead  of  break- 
ing down  under  it,  and  feeling,  "  Oh,  I  never  can  get 
through  and  live,"  she  should  enter  right  into  the  spirit 


DIKECTIGX3    TO    MIDWIVES.  169 

of  it,  as  though  it  must  be  done,  and  the  .wore  energeti- 
cally she  takes  hold  of  it,  the  sooner  and  more  easily 
she  can  dispatch  it.  The  assistance  afforded  by  a  cour- 
ageous state  of  mind  is  incalculable.  It  renders  every 
spasm  far  more  efficient  than  it  would  be  without  such 
mental  aid.  She  should  bear  down  upon  herself,  and 
strain  with  a  strong  mental  determination  to  expel  her 
load. 

But  if  she  sink  under  labor,  it  will  be  far  more  painful 
and  protracted,  because  the  muscles  will  be  in  exactly 
the  state  of  a  man  lifting  at  a  load  which  he  thinks  far 
beyond  his  strength.  "I  can't,"  always  palsies  ;  "I  can 
and  I  will,"  always  nerves  and  propels.  Incalculably 
can  mothers  promote  easy  and  successful  delivery,  by 
this  spirit  of  determination  and  courage.  And  all  the 
influences  that  surround  them  should  be  of  this  nerving, 
encouraging,  inspiring  aspect. 

Every  attendant — and  they  should  be  few,  and  of  the 
right  stamp — should  be  cool,  calm,  quiet,  perfectly  self- 
possessed,  and  enter  into  the  operation  as  though  they 
would  speed  it  onward.  But  all  this  flying  from  room 
to  room,  and  fussing,  and  fixing,  and  preparing,  and 
bustling  about,  flusters  the  mother  and  retards  delivery. 
Two  or  three  immediate  attendants  are  all-sufficient  on 
ordinary  occasions.  It  may  perhaps  be  well  to  have 
others  within  call,  yet  in  almost  all  cases,  the  less  done 
the  better.  Nature  must  do  ALL.  Let  her  have  her 
perfect  work,  and  it  will  be  well  done  But  all  inter- 
ference is  very  bad  for  both  mother  and  child.  The 
simple  fact  that  artificial  delivery  is  so  extremely  diffi- 
cult, and  access  to  the  child  by  way  of  pulling  it  into 
the  world  so  almost  impossible,  as  well  as  detrimental 
to  the  brain  and  mind  of  the  child,  is  admonition  positive 
15 


170  DELIVERY    MADE    EASY 

to  leave  this  ir.itter  to  NATURE.  And  every  honest  ac- 
coucheur will  bear  the  witness  that  all  common  cases 
should  be  left  wholly  to  nature,  and  that  meddling  with 
uncommon  cases  only  makes  them  worse.  Instrumen- 
tal delivery  ought  never,  need  never,  be  resorted  to. 
It  is  an  outrage  on  mother  and  child,  and  may  ALWAYS 
be  avoided  by  a  due  preparation  of  the  mother  before- 
hand. 

"  But,"  it  is  asked,  "  after  nature  has  done  all  she  can 
and  the  final  crisis  has  come  when  the  mother  must  die 
unless  the  child  is  taken  from  her  by  force,  what  shall 
we  then  do  ?"  I  answer,  such  cases  need  never  occur. 
A  due  physiological  preparation  of  the  mother  before- 
hand will  always  prevent  them.  And  when  worst 
comes  to  worst,  relax  the  parts  by  the  warm  sitting- 
bath,  which  may  be  advantageously  taken  for  days  and 
weeks  beforehand,  in  even  ordinary  cases.  On  this 
point,  I  do  not  claim  originality  ;  but  my  full  conviction 
is,  that  the  water-practice  is  the  ALL  AND  IN  ALL  at  ac- 
couchements.  The  following  is  from  the  Water-Cure 
Journal,  a  periodical  with  which  every  bearing  mother 
should  be  familiar,  edited  by  Dr.  Shew,  whose  repeated 
visits  to  Priessnitz,  long  and  eminently  successful  prac- 
tice, physiological  and  dietetic  knowledge,  and  strong 
common  sense,  place  him  among  the  very  first  water- 
cure  doctf  rs  on  this  continent. 

WATEE-CURE    IN   CHILD-BEAKING. 

"  The  following  remarkable  case  might  by  many  be 
reckoned  as  one  forming  an  exception  to  the  general 
rule,  as  to  what  would  be  the  general  result  under  simi- 
lar circumstances.  In  reality,  striking  as  the  case  is,  it 
is  only  an  exemplification  of  what  has  fi  squsntly  been 


BY    THE    WATER-CURE. 


171 


proved,  that  it  is  possible  for  women  of  trdinar}  health 
so  to  live  that  childbirth  and  the  period  of  pregnancy 
can  be  rendered  comparatively  free  from  pain  and  suf- 
fering. 

"  A  lady  of  this  city  whose  name  from  motives  of 
delicacy  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  mention,  of  seventeen 
years  of  age,  smoll  form,  with  very  good  constitution, 
was  lately  with  cnild,  and  passed  tl,  rough  the  whole 
period  as  follows  :  She  took  regularly  a  shower  bath 
every  morning,  exercised  every  day,  wet  or  dry,  in  the 
open  air,  and  when  by  any  means  the  amount  of  exer- 
cise was  considerably  less  than  common,  a  quick  bath 
was  taken  before  dinner,  and  regularly  a  sponge  or 
rubbing  bath  was  used  before  going  to  rest.  Sitz  baths 
were  taken  daily,  and  the  body  bandage  worn  much  of 
the  time.  No  permanent  chill  was  allowed  to  take 
place.  The  evening  sitz  bath  seemed  to  have  a  decided 
effect  in  causing  sound  rest.  The  bowels  were  kept 
free  by  clysters  of  cold  water  whenever  these  were 
necessary.  Very  plain  vegetable  and  farinaceous  food 
and  fruits  constituted  the  sole  diet.  The  meals  were 
light,  and  for  three  months  previous  to  confinement,  the 
supper  was  always  omitted,  so  that  only  two  light  meals 
were  taken  daily  and  no  food  between  times.  Drinking 
of  water  is  a  powerful  means  to  reduce  the  inordinate 
craving  appetite  with  which  many  are  afflicted  in  child- 
bearing.  In  the  case  of  this  lady,  no  other  drink  than 
pure,  soft  Croton  water  was  taken  during  the  whole 
time. 

"As  the  expected  time  drew  near,  one  morning  while 
in  the  sitting  bath  labor  commenced.  The  pains  were 
prompt,  and  in  about  twenty  minutes  a  fire  healthy 
child  was  born  In  about  ten  minutes  more  the  after- 


173  DELIVERY    MADE    EAST 

birth  came  away,  followed  with  but  little  flowing  of 
blood.  The  patient  was  allowed  to  rest  a  short  time, 
after  which  the  body  was  sponged  over  and  quickly 
made  dry  and  comfortable.  Wet  cloths  were  laid  upon 
the  breasts  to  prevent  inflammation  or  undue  swelling 
of  the  parts.  A  wet  bandage  was  also  placed  about 
the  abdomen  covered  with  a  dry  one,  so  as  to  be  of 
comfortable  temperature.  The  sponging,  rubbing,  and 
bandages,  were  the  means  of  reducing  the  feverish  ex- 
citement caused  by  labor,  and  of  soothing  the  body  in  a 
remarkable  degree,  so  that  sweet  and  quiet  sleep  soon 
followed.  On  the  third  day,  water  having  been  used  as 
the  case  seemed  to  require  in  the  mean  time,  the  woman 
walked  into  the  open  air  without  injury,  but  on  the  con- 
trary with  benefit.  Daily  exercise,  however,  was  pre- 
viously taken,  in  the  sick  room,  which  was  at  all  times 
kept  well  aired. 

"  In  this  remarkable  case  there  was  not  a  single  scar 
left  upon  the  body,  it  being  the  first  child,  and  the 
amount  of  suffering  was  by  far  less  than  is  often  expe- 
rienced in  mere  menstruation,  by  women  who  do  not 
bathe  regularly  and  adopt  a  generally  correct  hygienic 
course.  Physiologically  as  well  as  morally,  '  wisdom's 
ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness,'  and  happy  is  that  mo- 
ther who  understands  nature's  laws,  and  who  has  in 
them  a  confidence  sufficient  to  live  accordingly. 

"  It  may  be  objected  in  reference  to  the  above  case, 
that  it  would  be  unsafe  for  most  females  to  attempt  to 
carry  out  a  similar  course  to  the  one  described.  This 
is  not  true.  Every  individual,  old  or  young,  sick  or 
well,  and  of  either  sex,  should  have  at  least  a  daily  bath. 
Who  would  think  of  leaving  for  a  single  day  the  face 
and  hands  unwashed  ?  Those  who  have  adopted  daily 


DELIVERY    MADE    BASY  173 

bath.ng,  know  well  the  comfort  and  advantages  arising 
from  it.  Nor  is  a  rigid  vegetable,  farinaceous,  and  fruit 
diet,  as  was  used  in  the  above  case,  a  dangerous  one  as 
many  suppose.  On  the  contrary,  such  a  diet  judiciously 
selected,  is  highly  conducive  to  bodily  vigor  and  com- 
fort, and  renders  one  in  all  cases  far  less  liable  to  dis- 
ease of  every  kind.  All  who  will  in  every  respect  take 
a  judicious  course,  similar  to  the  one  described,  will,  as 
certainly  as  the  sun  shines,  render  their  sufferings  in 
child-bearing  very  much  less  than  by  any  other  possible 
means  that  can  be  adopted,  and  in  most  cases,  so  great 
will  be  the  benefit  derived,  that,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, child-bearing  will  be  unattended  with  suffering — be 
without  pain. 

"  The  condition  of  the  child  in  this  case,  was  not  less 
remarkable  than  that  of  the  mother.  It  was  healthy 
and  vigorous,  and  as  a  natural  result  was  far  less  liable 
to.  disease  than  children  generally  are.  It  is  not  at  all 
natural  for  one  half  of  the  race  to  die  under  five  years 
of  age.  If  mothers  and  children  were  universally  man- 
aged as  in  the  case  above,  mortality  of  infants  and  chil- 
dren would  be  comparatively  unknown." 

CASE    OF   MRS.    SHEW. 

"On  the  16th  of  September,  1845,  Mrs.  Shew  gave 
birth,  under  peculiar  circurr stances,  to  a  child.  Her 
ancestry  on  both  sides  are  consumptive,  so  that  she 
inherits  a  strong  predisposition  to  that  disease,  and  has, 
in  fact,  for  years  had  much  to  contend  with,  in  reference 
to  the  condition  of  the  chest.  Pleurisies,  inflammation 
of  the  lungs,  cough,  and  hemorrhages,  she  had  at  differ- 
ent times,  and  is  constantly  liable  to  affections  of  this 
kind.  She  is  likewise  naturally  of  very  delicate  frame 
15* 


174  BY    THE    WATER-CURE. 

and  extreme  nervous  sensibility,  and  it  has  oeen  only 
^V  exercising  great  care  in  every  thing  that  pertains 
j  health,  that  she  has  now  for  a  number  of  years,  with 
two  or  three  exceptions,  kept  free  from  the  outbreaks 
of  disease,  and  has  enjoyed  what  would  ordinarily  be 
termed  good  health. 

"  The  summer  of  1845,  it  will  be  recollected,  was 
very  tedious  and  hot.  The  whole,  season  the  drought 
was  severe,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  single  shower  to 
refresh  the  earth.  It  was,  therefore,  very  depressing  to 
the  health.  However,  by  daily  bathing  and  being  much 
in  the  shade  in  the  open  air,  wearing  usually  a  part  of 
each  day  the  wet  girdle,  to  refresh  the  system,  using 
the  cooling  hip  bath  and  injections  now  and  then,  as  oc- 
casion required,  and  partaking  lightly  of  food  but  twice 
a  day,  Mrs.  S.  passed  through  the  summer  remarkably 
well  ;  but  more  than  once  during  the  season,  certain 
things  transpired  that  were  very  much  against  quietude 
peace  of  mind,  and  mental  repose  so  necessary  in  the 
condition  she  was  then  in. 

"  At  length  her  expected  time  drew  near.  By  the 
exercise  of  great  prudence  and  care,  she  was  enabled 
up  to  the  very  last,  to  discharge  the  ordinary  duties  of 
overseeing  the  household  affairs  of  her  family,  and  to 
walk  and  ride  daily  and  frequently  for  exercise,  or  as 
business  called,  in  the  open  air. 

"  I  must  here  mention,  that  one  of  my  respected  pre- 
ceptors in  medicine,  and  a  man  who  is  scarcely  second 
to  any  other  in  his  thorough  acquaintance  with  medical 
lore,  gave  it  as  his  decided  opinion,  that  from  the  ex- 
treme smallness  of  the  pelvis,  Mrs.  Shew  could  never 
give  birth  to  a  full-formed  living  child.  The  expedient 
of  causing  premature  birth,  or  the  still  more  horrible 


BY    THE    WATER-CURE.  175 

one  of  destroying  the  child,  seemed  to  nim  inevitable, 
either  of  which  Mrs.  S.  could  not  for  a  moment  listen  to. 
That  the  labor  must  be  exceedingly  severe,  was  evident 
enough  to  all.  But  she  was  resolved  to  let  nature  take 
her  own  course,  whatever  it  might  be. 

"  Labor  came  on  at  evening  of  the  15th  of  September, 
the  weather  being  yet  hot  and  sultry.  Mrs.  S.  would 
not  listen  to  the  proposal  to  have  medical  aid  besides 
myself;  nor  would  she  consent  to  have  any  nurse  or 
female  attendant  of  any  kind.  Ordinary  servants  only 
were  to  bring  water,  and  do  whatever  of  like  service 
was  necessary. 

"  The  labor-pains  went  on,  becoming  exceedingly  se- 
vere, and  continued  until  three  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
at  which  time  she  gave  birth  to  a  large,  healthy,  and 
well-formed  female  child.  Almost  immediately  the  after- 
birth was  expelled,  followed  by  most  frightful  flooding. 
The  night  was,  I  confess,  a  long,  dark,  and  dismal  one 
to  me.  There  was,  I  knew,  in  my  wife's  system,  and 
always  had  been,  as  well  as  in  her  family,  a  strong  ten- 
dency to  hemorrhages.  I  understood  perfectly  well 
the  different  modes  resorted  to  in  these  dangerous  ex- 
tremes. Cold  applications  are,  the  world  over,  the 
means  relied  upon.  As  to  the  mode  of  applying  the 
cold,  I  had  resolved,  in  this  case,  to  take  a  different 
course  from  any  I  had  ever  heard  of.  I  had  procured 
a  large  hip  bath,  with  a  good  back,  in  which  a  person 
could  be  placed  in  a  sort  of  half-reclining  position,  with 
the  head  supported  upon  pillows.  Instead  of  applying 
the  cold  water  by  the  stream  from  a  pitcher,  by  wet 
cloths,  and  the  like,  I  had  resolved,  that  if  flooding  came 
on,  I  would  take  Mi».  S.  in  my  arms,  and  instantly  place 
her  in  this  hip  bath ;  and  thus,  as  I  believed,  I  could 


176  DELIVERY    MADE    EAST 

more  quickly  chill  the  whole  of  the  pelvic  viscera,  than 
by  any  other  means.  Be  it  remembered,  that  wherever 
there  is  hemorrhage,  whether  from  the  lungs,  stomach, 
bowels,  or  womb,  there  is  great  heat  in  and  about  the 
part  from  which  the  blood  issues  ;  and  the  quicker  and 
more  effectually  this  heat  can  be  abstracted  and  the 
parts  chilled,  the  more  certain  are  we  to  arrest  the  flow, 
by  the  constringing  effect  of  cold  upon  the  open  vessels. 
As  for  the  SHOCK  of  the  douche,  or  pouring  of  water 
from  a  height,  so  much  in  vogue,  I  believe  that,  so  far 
as  the  shock  is  concerned,  it  is  better  avoided.  If  I  am 
not  mistaken,  THAT  only  tends  to  keep  up  the  flooding 
The  cooling  should  be  passive,  and  not  violent. 

"  Having  every  thing  in  readiness,  I  took  Mrs.  S.  in 
my  arms,  and  before  she  had  time  to  faint  entirely,  I 
placed  her  in  this  hip  bath  of  cold  water.  The  water 
covered  from  near  the  knees  over  the  whole  abdomen, 
and  no  sooner  had  these  parts  come  in  contact  with  the 
water,  than  it  seemed  as  if  by  magic  the  flooding  ceased. 
The  water  revived  her,  and  in  a  few  minutes,  before  she 
had  become  much  chilled,  I  raised  her  carefully  and  laid 
her  in  bed,  put  wet  cloths  about  the  abdomen,  and  wrap- 
ped her  warmly  in  blankets.  The  feet  were  cold,  as 
they  generally  are  in  severe  hemorrhage.  These  parts, 
and  from  the  knees  down,  I  rubbed  briskly  with  the 
warm  hand,  to  restore  the  natural  warmth.  I  kept 
good  watch  that  she  should  not  become  too  warm,  as 
in  that  case  flooding  would  be  apt  to  return.  It  was 
not  long  before  Mrs.  S.  fell  into  a  sound  sleep,  in  which 
she  rested  for  some  time. 

"•I  have  regretted  much  that  I  did  not,  at  the  time 
write  down  the  notes  of  this  case  ;  that  is,  of  the  re- 
maining part  of  the  trealmer.t  to  be  spoken  of.  From 


BY    THE    WATER-CURE.  177 

the  severity  of  the  labor  and  the  loss  of  a  large  amount 
of  blood,  Mrs.  S.  said  she  felt  a  greater  degree  of  weak- 
ness than  she  had  ever  before  experienced,  a  sense  of 
sinking  of  the  vital  powers,  and  an  oppression  at  the 
heart,  with  which  she  was  before  wholly  unacquainted. 
The  sleep  I  have  spoken  of  did  her  much  good,  and 
was,  of  all  things,  the  most  desirable.  Still,  she  was 
very  weak,  and  after-pains  set  in,  growing  more  and 
more  severe.  Her  system  being  so  highly  sensitive,  I 
expected  this,  and  resolved  upon  the  use  of  the  hip  bath. 
I  would  here  remark,  that  the  objection  that  would  be 
raised  by  almost  any  practitioner  to  this  procedure, 
here  as  well  as  in  the  flooding  before  spoken  of,  would 
be,  that  the  position,  the  raising  up  a  person  in  this 
weak  state,  and  placing  the  trunk  of  the  body  in  an 
upright  position,  would  be  likely  to  cause  a  return  of 
the  flooding.  This  objection,  I  admit,  would  have  great 
weight,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  water  acts  so 
powerfully  to  check  that  symptom.  Still,  there  is  no- 
thing like  the  danger  feared,  even  without  the  use  of 
the  water,  that  there  is  supposed  to  be.  And  persons 
are  found  every  where,  in  fact,  it  is  almost  a  universa 
thing  in  childbirth,  that  females  are  required  to  lie,  day 
after  day,  in  too  warm  beds,  thus  debilitating  the  body 
by  the  heat  caused  by  the  fatigue  of  remaining  much  in 
one  position,  and  by  the  unnatural  position  of  the  brain. 
Females  thus  become  debilitated,  nervous,  restless,  and 
are  kept  back  day  after  day,  and  often  for  weeks,  and 
all  for  the  want  of  what  may  be  called  good  nursing ; 
and  then  in  this  debilitated  state,  when  they  do  begin  to 
get  about  after  the  ninth  day,  as  superstition  has  it,  the 
opposite  extreme  is  practiced  ;  too  much  is  done  at 
once,  a  cold  is  taken,  inflammation  of  the  breasts  oc- 


178  l-KLIVERY    MADE    EAST 

curs,  or  falling  of  the  womb  takes  place,  or  perhaps  a 
powerful  hemorrhage.  I  repeat,  that  in  my  practice, 
as  a  rule  to  which  there  can  seldom  be  any  exception, 
my  patients  of  this  kind  sit  up,  even  if  it  be  but  one  or 
five  minutes  at  a  time,  the  first  day  of  the  confinement 
and  onward.  The  sitting  up  to  REST  the  patient,  that  is, 
to  rest  from  the  fatigue  of  the  lying  position,  is  one  of 
the  best  means  that  can  be  adopted.  The  bed  is  at  the 
same  time  aired  and  becomes  cool,  so  that  when  she  re- 
turns to  it,  the  change  back  is  salutary,  and  the  reclining 
position  becomes  one  of  rest.  The  patient  should  be 
taught  not  to  overdo  in  this  matter,  for  every  good 
thing  has  its  abuse  as  well  as  use.  I  had  now,  in  Mrs. 
Shew's  case,  a  good  opportunity  to  test  fully  the  powers 
of  water  and  good  nursing.  There  were  in  her  mind 
no  prejudices  to  overcome — no  lack  of  confidence,  no 
superstitious,  yet  good-meaning  old  women  about  us,  to 
whisper  their  fears  and  prognosticate  evil.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  way,  and  what  was  better  than  all  the 
rest,  Mrs.  8.  had  herself  a  good  knowledge  of  the  prin- 
ciples that  should  guide  us  in  the  management  of  such 
cases. 

"  After  Mrs.  Shew  had  slept,  as  before  mentioned, 
and  the  after-pains  had  commenced,  I  administered  the 
hip  bath.  These  pains,  as  well  as  hemorrhages,  are  at- 
tended with  internal  heat ;  but.  as  regarded  the  general 
system,  Mrs.  S.  had  now  a  feeling  of  dread  of  COLD  wa- 
ter. The  objects  in  view  in  the  use  of  the  hip  bath  and 
frictions,  were  to  lull  the  pain,  and  to  invigorate  the 
system  by  the  tonic  effect  of  the  water  and  friction.  I 
laid  a  folded  blanket  in  the  bottom  of  the  bath,  in  which 
was  put  a  small  quantity  of  tepid  water,  of  such  tern- 
nerature  as  would  produce  no  unpleasant  sensation 


BY    THE    WATER-CURE.  179 

Blankets  were  also  used  to  wrap  about  the  feet  and 
limbs,  and  the  whole  surface,  except  the  parts  exposed 
to  the  water.  Reaching  my  hand  under  these  blankets, 
1  commenced  rubbing  the  spine,  abdomen,  and  other 
parts  ;  and  as  the  surface  became  accustomed  to  the 
water,  I  dipped  the  hand  into  that  which  was  of  a  little 
lower  temperature,  and  at  length  lowered  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  water  in  a  bath  gradually,  by  adding  to  it 
cold  water.  In  a  short  time  the  pains  ceased.  The 
bath  was  continued  some  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes, 
possibly  a  little  longer,  and  then  Mrs.  S.  was  placed 
comfortably  in  bed.  It  was  indeed  truly  wonderful  to 
behold  the  change  produced  by  this  bath.  Besides  the 
removal  of  all  pain,  it  seemed  as  if  the  strength  was 
increased  tenfold,  all  in  the  space  of  less  than  half  an 
hour. 

"  The  after-pains  returned  frequently  during  the  day, 
and  as  frequently  they  were  combated  with  the  hip  bath 
and  frictions.  At  least  as  many  as  ten  times,  and  I  think 
more,  through  the  day  and  evening,  I  administered  these 
baths,  every  one  of  which  appeared  to  do  an  astonishing 
amount  of  good.  Besides  the  removing  of  after-pains 
and  the  tonic  effect  of  the  baths,  there  was  another 
palpable  one :  at  times,  sharp,  cutting  pains  were  expe- 
rienced in  the  bowels,  caused  by  flatulency.  The  bath 
removed  them  like  a  charm.  The  urine  was  found  to 
pass  freely,  in  consequence  of  the  bathing  and  drinking; 
and  the  soreness  so  much  felt  in  these  cases  was  all  re- 
moved. 

"  As  Mrs.  S.  grew  stronger,  the  water  was  used 
somewhat  colder,  but  all  the  time  of  moderate  temper- 
ature. She  slept  very  well  during  the  night,  having 
little  or  no  more  of  the  after-pains.  In  the  evening,  she 


180  DELIVERY    MADE    EAST 

sat  up,  bore  her  weight,  and  walked  a  little  about  the 
room. 

"In  consequence  of  more  than  usual  fatigue,  I  did  not 
awake  the  next  morning  until  between  six  and  seven 
o'clock.  I  confess  I  was  not  a  little  surprised,  on 
awaking,  that  Mrs.  Shew  had  left  the  room.  This  was 
only  twenty-six  hours  from  the  birth;  and  she  had  taken 
her  child  in  her  arms,  and  gone  down  to  the  kitchen. 
She  felt  that  she  was  perfectly  able  to  do  this,  and  acted 
accordingly,  on  her  own  responsibility.  She  was,  how- 
ever very  careful  this  day  ;  look  but  little  nourishment ; 
and  in  three  days'  time,  we  moved  to  the  large  house, 
56  Bond  street,  Mrs.  S.  walking  up  and  down  stairs 
numbers  of  times  during  the  day,  overseeing  things  as 
they  were  moved,  and  so  every  day  onward.  Bathing 
was  kept  up  as  usual,  daily,  and  she  partook  now,  as 
was  her  usual  habit,  of  the  plainest  food,  and  but  twice 
per  day,  using  no  other  animal  food  except  a  trifling 
quantity  of  milk,  and  no  other  drink  except  pure  water. 

"  The  second  day  after  the  birth  of  our  child,  a  wor- 
thy old  gentleman,  one  of  our  patients,  from  New  Eng- 
land, called  upon  us.  He  inquired,  kindly,  respecting 
Mrs.  S.'s  health,  he  having  seen  her  much  in  the  sum- 
mer, and  in  a  few  minutes  she  met  him  in  the  parlor. 
He  raised  his  hands,  and,  in  astonishment,  exclaimed, 
*  This  is  indeed  bringing  things  back  to  nature  !' 

"In  conversation  with  one  of  the  first  medical  men  of 
our  city,  or  of  the  world,  I  described  this  case  of  Mrs. 
Shew's,  and  also  others  of  like  results.  He  said  that  he 
could  not  conceive  it  possible  for  a  woman  to  get  up 
and  go  about,  with  any  thing  like  safety,  in  twenty-four 
or  even  forty-eight  hours  after  childbirth.  I  admit,  that 
as  a  rule,  women  could  not,  under  ordinary  modes  of 


BY    THE    WATER-CURE.  181 

treatment ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  asked  him  how  it  was 
that  the  Indian  women  were  so  little  troubled  with  these 
matters.  I  then  said,  our  patients  practice  bathing 
daily,  bathing  continually  ;  drink  no  tea  or  coffee  to 
weaken  the  powers  of  digestion,  constipate  the  bowels 
destroy  the  relish  for  food,  shatter  the  nervous  system 
and  impair  the  soundness  of  natural  and  refreshing 
sleep;  their  modes  of  dress  do  not  distort  and  debilitate 
their  frames,  and  instead  of  remaining  mostly  within 
doors,  according  to  the  foolish  customs  of  civil  life,  they 
go  regularly  and  often  in  the  open  air,  thus  gaining 
strength  upon  strength,  by  means  of  these  natural  and 
powerful  tonics,  exercise,  pure  air,  and  light.  He  ad 
mitted  that  such  modes,  persevered  in,  must  produce 
powerful  effects  of  some  kind,  and  added,  that  he  intend- 
ed always  to  sustain  good  health  by  means  of  the  showei 
bath,  the  daily  use  of  which  he  had  adopted  with  the 
greatest  benefit. 

"I  hold  that,  strong  and  enduring  as  are  the  Indian 
women,  the  generality  of  females  of  the  present  genera- 
tion even,  may,  if  they  commence  in  early  life,  become 
more  hardy  and  strong  than  are  those  daughters  of  the 
forest,  whose  habits  are,  in  many  respects,  unnatura 
and  detrimental  to  health.  But  all  this  requires  an 
amount  of  knowledge  that  few  yet  possess. 

"  I  could  add  numbers  of  cases  of  childbirth  scarcely 
less  striking  than  that  of  Mrs.  Shew ;  and  if  the  reader 
has  any  doubts  of  the  authenticity  of  such  narrations, 
I  ask  him  to  take  the  names  and  residences  of  my  pa- 
tients, and  hear  their  stories  for  himself.  Persons  who 
have  experienced  the  invaluable,  untold,  and  apparently 
miraculous  effects  of  cold  water,  will  not  hesitate  to 
make  known  the  blessing  of  the  new  system." 
16 


182  BLEEDING,    CHLOROFORM      ETC. 

Would  that  I  could  duly  impress  upon  mothers  this 
cardinal  point — to  prepare  themselves  beforehand  by 
roRTiFYiNG  THEIR  HEALTH  instead  of  unfitting  them- 
selves  by  health-ruining  practices  from  the  very  cradle. 

BLEEDING,    CHLOROFORM,    KTC.  ' 

' 

Bleeding  at  such  times  is  most  pernicious,  for  it 
weakens  mother  and  child  by  withdrawing  the  life- 
blood  from  both.  They  require  nothing  as  much  as 
BLOOD.  Granted  that  it  is  impure,  does  taking  away  a 
part  purify  the  rest  ?  Abundance  of  PURE  AIR  is  the 
thing  for  cleansing  the  blood. 

To  chloroform  there  exists  strong  objections.  Its 
stupefying  influence  on  the  child  must  be  most  detri- 
mental, because,  since  its  brain  and  nerves  are  exceed 
ingly  weak  and  susceptible,  they  are  easily  injured  foi 
life  ;  whereas  adults  readily  throw  off  such  injurious 
influences.  It  must  deaden  the  child's  nervous  suscep- 
tibilities quite  as  much  as  the  mother's,  and  can  this  be 
done  without  seriously  impairing  its  cerebral  consti- 
tution ? 

Nor  is  there  any  need  of  it.  The  previous  prepara- 
tion recommended  in  this  work  will  carry  mothers 
through  this  period  without  Tiny  such  stupefaction. 
Still,  if  women  will  enhance  their  pains  by  abusing 
health,  and  then  resort  to  chloroform,  let  them.  Theirs, 
and  not  mine,  be  the  consequences. 

MALE    AND    FEMALE    MIDWIVES. 

Until  within  about  two  centuries,  male  accoacheurs 
were  wholly  unknown.  Women  alone  presided  at 
births.  And  the  alledged  origin  of  this  modern  custom 
reflects  no  special  credit  upon  it.  Its  propriety  is  ques- 


MALE    AND    FEMALE    MIDWIVES.  183 

tionable,  because  it  is  directly  in  the  teeth  of  that  native 
female  modesty  so  innate  as  well  as  necessary  to  wo- 
man. Let  those  who  know,  testify  to  the  extreme  re- 
luctance with  which  young  mothers  submit,  in  their  first 
confinement,  to  be  handled  by  doctors.  It  is  perfectly 
revolting  to  their  finer  sensibilities.  This  is  not  the  re- 
sult of  prudery,  but  of  natural  MODESTY.  And  that  mo- 
desty— the  great  safeguard  of  female  virtue — it  does 
much  to  annul.  It  breaks  the  ice,  and  paves  the  way 
for  familiarity  with  other  men  than  their  own  husbands; 
and  that  not  a  few  doctors  take  advantage  of  it  and  the 
confidence  required  by  this  custom,  to  excite  improper 
feelings  in  women,  and  to  gratify  unhallowed  passions 
in  themselves,  is  more  common  than  husbands  for  a 
moment  suppose.  These  husbands,  before  and  at  ac- 
couchement, persuade,  and  scold,  and  almost  force  their 
wives  to  allow  the  doctor  to  make  his  observations — 
of  which  there  is  no  sort  of  need  in  one  case  in  hun- 
dreds— and  the  bars  of  virtue  thus  torn  down,  both  the 
doctors  and  others  find  subsequent  access  too  often  al- 
lowed, whereas,  but  for  her  having  been  thus  "  broken 
in,"  nothing  on  earth  could  have  induced  her  to  have 
tolerated  the  least  familiarity. 

And,  what  is  worse,  women  must  lay  all  their  female 
complaints  before  the  doctor,  and  talk  much  about  these 
private  matters,  of  which  physicians  can  take  advantage 
to  excite  impure  desires.  Husbands,  look  well  to  this 
matter. 

Besides,  till  every  feeling  of  instinctive  modesty  is 
worn  away,  the  presence  of  strange  men  around  the 
lying-in  bed  has  a  dampening,  repressing  influence  on 
the  mother's  mind,  which  materially  retards  delivery. 
She  tries  to  suppress  her  spasmodic  efforts,  and  this 


184  FITTING    WOMEN    POR    MIDWIVES. 

stifles  the  operation.  Yet  the  presence  of  husbands  b 
admissible,  and  even  desirable,  as  it  sustains  the  mot'ier  ; 
but  this  turning  out  husbands,  because  their  presence  is 
improper,  yet  admitting  doctors,  is  strange. 

And  why  are  not  women  quite  as  well  qualified  as 
men  to  officiate  on  such  occasions  ?  They  have  smaller 
and  softer  hands,  more  tact,  more  of  the  child-loving 
instinct,  which  is  an  important  pre-requisite,  and  espe- 
cially more  tenderness  and  quickness  of  perception,  to- 
gether with  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE — the  most  important 
preparation  of  all.  How  infinitely  better  does  this 
experience  fit  mothers  to  preside,  than  all  the  learning 
of  the  schools  does  men?  This  book-learning  UNFITS 
men  for  accoucheurs,  for  it  induces  them  often  to  resort 
to  instruments  where  nature,  left  to  herself,  would  do 
the  work  far  better,  and  save  mother  and  child. 

FITTING    WOMEN    FOR    MIDWIVES. 

What  our  women  want,  mainly,  is  SELF-CONFIDENCE. 
They  can  do  all  that  is  necessary,  if  they  only  THINK  so. 
Of  course,  it  is  presupposed  that  women  of  intelligence 
and  nerve  become  practitioners.  They  next  require 
anatomical  KNOWLEDGE  ;  for  I  would  not  have  ignorant 
women  placed  in  so  important  a  situation.  They  should 
be  thoroughly  PREPARED  for  this  important  office  ;  and, 
accordingly,  our  women  have  a  strong  craving  for 
anatomical  knowledge,  which  is  instinctive,  and  should 
therefore  be  gratified.  This  craving  is  implanted  parity 
for  the  very  purpose  of  fitting  them  for  this  and  other 
like  healing  offices.  Nor  is  there  a  shadow  of  reason 
why  they  should  be  denied  access  to  colleges,  or  to  any 
of  the  advantages  proffered  to  medical  students.  Nor 
i»-the  day  far  distant,  when  unless  medical  colleges  are 


FEMALE    PRACTITIONERS. 

opened  to  them,  they  wiL  have  one  of  their  own.  In- 
deed, one  is  now  in  progress.  That  heroine  who  re- 
cently graduated  at  Geneva  College,  purposes  to  go  to 
Fiance,  and  after  thoroughly  preparing  herself,  to  estab- 
lish, in  connection  with  others,  a  college  for  the  educa- 
tion of  doctresses,  with  special  reference  to  fitting  them 
for  mid  wives.  Her  advantages  as  present  matron  of 
the  lying-in  hospital  at  Philadelphia,  eminently  fit  her  to 
lead  off  m  this  much-needed  reform. 

FEMALE    PRACTITIONERS    FOR    FEMALE    COMPLAINTS. 

That  women  are  far  better  adapted  than  men  to  pre- 
scribe for  female  complaints,  is  apparent.  The  number 
and  aggravation  of  female  diseases,  are  incalculable 
and  most  frightful.  And  many  of  them  are  caused  by 
the  ignorance  of  girls,  and  their  consequent  careless  ex- 
posures in  the  early  stages  of  menstruation.  And  this 
ignorance  is  occasioned,  mainly,  by  the  fact,  that  MEN 
must  be  consulted  ;  and  girls  have  so  shrinking  a  repug- 
nance to  disclose  any  thing  to  men,  on  this  to  them 
delicate  subject,  that  they  prefer  to  suffer  in  silence 
Meanwhile  the  disease,  easily  checked  in  the  start,  be- 
comes incurable,  and  a  short  life  of  suffering  is  the  cop- 
sequence  of  men  assuming  this  department,  which  be- 
longs exclusively  to  women. 

Besides,  severe  medicines  are  far  less  needed  than 
appropriate  PHYSIOLOGICAL  ADVICE,  which  our  women  are 
especially  fitted  to  give.  Sympathy,  and  unreserved 
disclosure  of  all  symptoms — a  feeling  of  perfect  free- 
dom, as  if  at  home,  and  talking  to  a  friend — are  indis- 
pensable ;  yet,  between  men  and  girls,  this  never  can 
and  never  should  obtain,  but  is  easy  and  natural  be- 
16* 


186          MOTHERS  SHOULD  INSTRUCT  THEIR  DAUGHTERS. 

tween  female  practitioners  and  female  patients.  Thia 
point  is  especially  important. 

Female  physicians  would  also  DISSEMINATE  PREVEN- 
TIVE INSTRUCTION,  which  men  will  not,  or,  at  least,  do 
not  do.  Girls  should  be  put  upon  their  GUARD.  Many 
mothers  have  brought  their  daughters  to  me  for  advice, 
whose  health  had  been  ruined  by  improper  exposures  at 
ihe  first  menstruation,  which  a  little  knowledge  would 
have  prevented.  Oh,  it  is  a  pity,  and  a  burning  sharne, 
that  girls  are  allowed  to  arrive  at  puberty  without  even 
suspecting  its  approach,  or  knowing  one  thing  in  regard 
to  this  all-important  subject,  in  which  their  healths,  and 
even  their  lives  are  so  intimately  concerned,  as  well  as 
this  child-bearing  function.  Mothers,  why  will  you  let 
them  approach  this  crisis  without  instructing  them  what 
to  do,  and  especially  guarding  them  against  injurious 
exposures  ?  Let  your  own  experience  attest  the  practi- 
cal importance  of  this  kind  of  knowledge,  and  on  no 
account  fail  to  talk  familiarly  with  them  concerning  it. 
Girls  and  women  MUST  have  light  on  this  subject.  Mis- 
ery and  premature  death  enough  have  already  occurred', 
in  consequence  of  that  mock-delicacy  in  which  it  is  en- 
shrouded. Away  with  this  squeamishness,  and  look  this 
whole  ordinance  of  nature  fairly  in  the  face. 

There  is  one  other  call  for  female  physicians,  even 
greater  than  any  yet  named.  Pregnant  mothers,  espe- 
cially before  their  FIRST  confinement,  have  a  strong 
craving  for  sympathy — for  some  intimate  female  friend, 
with  whom  they  can  talk  over  all  their  symptoms  and 
signs,  and  from  whom  receive  cheering  aoVice.  This 
requirement  of  bearing  mothers,  it  is  not  possible  foi 
doctors  ever  to  fill.  WOMEN  alone  can  freely  confer 
with  each  other  concerning  it.  Nor  ts  the  day  far  dis« 


HARRIET    K.    HUNT.  187 

tant  when  this  gi  eat  desideratum — FEMALE  practitioners 
of  medicine  and  midwifery — will  supplant  male  ac- 
coucheurs. 

Harriet  K.  Hunt,  of  Boston,  one  of,  if  not  the  very 
first  female  physician  in  our  country,  and  the  pioneer  of 
female  practice,  justly  remarked,  that  no  one  thing 
would  do  more  to  restrain  the  licentiousness  of  hus- 
bands, than  female  physicians ;  because  these  erring 
husbands  now  feel  safe  from  exposure,  because  they 
know  their  wives  will  not  expose  them  to  doctors, 
whereas  they  would  tell  all  freely  to  doctresses.  She 
thinks  her  own  practice  exerts  a  most  salutary  and 
needed  restraint  on  the  husbands  of  not  a  few  of  her 
patients.  This  good  woman,  bringing  much  good  sense, 
information,  talent,  and  energy  of  character  into  this 
new  department,  is  doing  much  to  add  RESPECTABILITY 
to  female  practice,  and  is  really  doing  immense  good. 
Her  practice  is  very  large,  and  embraces  many  women 
who  move  in  the  first  circles  of  Boston ;  and  one  of  her 
strongest  recommendations  is,  that  she  gives  more  ADVICE 
than  medicines,  and  directs  as  to  the  PREVENTION  of  dis- 
eases as  well  as  their  cure.  She  will  soon  commence  a 
course  of  free  lectures  to  the  POOR,  and  is  determined  to 
do  all  she  can  for  the  health  of  her  sex.  She  is  a  true 
philanthropist.  May  she  be  duly  rewarded. 

439.     ABORTION. 

That  this  mother-ruining  as  well  as  child-destroy- 
ing practice  prevails  to  a  most  alarming  extent,  is  a 
mournful  fact.  Few  realize  how  many  mothers,  here  in 
this  Christian  (?)  land,  do  and  take  what  is  expressly 
calculated  to  produce  miscarriage,  and  taken  with  that 
specific  and  sole  object.  Many  unmarried  women,  who 


188  THE    CRIMvE    OF    ABORTION. 

stand  high  in  public  estimation,  have  perpetrated  this 
heinous  crime,  in  order  to  hide  their  shame.  Married 
women,  too,  by  hundreds  and  by  thousands,  have  dealt 
out  death  against  their  own  bodies,  and  the  FRUIT  of 
those  bodies.  It  seems  so  revolting,  so  unnatural,  such 
an  outrage  of  every  principle  of  our  nature,  that  its  per- 
petration evinces  both  consummate- ignorance  and  total 
depravity  combined.  Touching  this  subject,  the  Pa- 
rents' Guide  thus  remarks : 

"  The  practice  of  procuring  abortion,  or,  to  use  a  less 
offensive  expression,  inducing  a  miscarriage,  has  of  late 
become  so  common,  that  it  requires  to  be  placed  before 
the  public  in  all  its  naked  atrocity.  From  the  increas- 
ing number  of  unprincipled  persons  who  publicly  adver- 
tise this  destructive  practice,  it  is  evident  that  it  is  ex- 
tending to  a  fearful  degree  throughout  our  country  : 
some  knowledge,  therefore,  of  the  dreadful  consequences 
attending  such  utter  violations  of  nature's  laws,  may  be 
useful.  That  the  act  of  procuring  abortion  is  a  crime 
of  the  deepest  dye,  on  a  par  with  that  of  murder,  no  ar- 
gument can  controvert ;  nor  can  any,  except  the  weak- 
minded  or  the  vicious,  be  persuaded  to  the  contrary 
Is  it  possible  that  any  woman  of  sane  mind  can  look 
upon  her  living  child,  and  admit  for  a  moment  that  it 
would  be  a  greater  crime  to  deprive  it  of  life  by  violent 
means  then,  than  it  would  have  been  while  in  a  state  of 
embryo  ?  Many  early  married,  unreflecting  females, 
to  avoid  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  a  large  family, 
allow  themselves  to  be  deluded  by  the  miserable  sophis- 
try, that  there  is  no  harm,  previous  to  quickening,  in 
taking  the  most  deadly  drugs,  or  in  making  use  of  the 
most  violent  means  to  procure  abortion.  Let  them  not, 
however,  thus  deceive  themselves,  for  whatever  appa- 


FATAL    EFFECTS    OF    ABORTION.  189 

rent  success  may,  for  a  time,  attend  these  atrocious 
practices,  retribution  is  sure  to  follow  such  gross  viola- 
tions of  nature's  laws.  The  moral  and  physical  institu- 
tions of  a  wise  and  just  Creator  cannot  be  thus  outraged 
with  impunity — effect  follows  cause,  as  unceasingly 
here  as  in  any  other  department  of  organic  life. 

"Scarcely  any  misfortune  to  which  humanity  is -liable, 
is  more  to  be  dreaded  than  a  natural  tendency  to  miscar- 
riage. How  often  has  it  been  the  bane  of  an  otherwise 
happy  existence  ?  Its  uniform  evil  effect,  upon  the  gen- 
eral health  of  the  sufferer,  is  well-known  and  admitted  : 
and  yet,  strange  perversity,  an  incredible  number  of  fe- 
males, in  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  life,  are  found,  who  in 
their  pitiable  ignorance  are  willing,  often  for  slight  per- 
sonal considerations,  to  risk  a  constant  liability  to  this 
constitutional  evil,  and  thereby  commit,  in  an  indirect 
manner,  the  crime  of  self-murder.  Among  several 
cases  fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  writer  is  that  of  Mrs. 

W ,  a  woman  highly  respected  for  her  piety,  and  in 

some  respects  good  sense,  having  borne  four  healthy 
children,  and  thereby  acquired  a  priceless  treasure. 
Some  plausible  demon  incited  her  to  the  use  of  these 
unhallowed  means,  to  avoid,  in  the  cant  phrase  of  the 
day,  a  too  numerous  family.  After  five  years  of  suc- 
cess, she  is  now  a  helpless  ruin,  totally  prostrated  in  her 
nervous  system,  and  entirely  blind.  And  again,  these 
days  of  modern  refinement  have  given  rise  to  another 
baneful  practice.  The  newly-married,  youthful  couple, 
must  for  a  season  enjoy  the  butterfly-life  of  gayety  pro- 
per to  their  condition  in  the  present  improved  scale  of 
existence,  to  do  which,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
avoid  the  inconvenience  and  cares  of  offspring.  This 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  encouraging- -harmlessly 


190  ABORTION    COMMON    IN 

and  for  the  present  only,  mind  you — a  miscarriage,  for- 
getting that  this  outrage  upon  nature  can  only  be  inflict- 
ed by  incurring  the  heavy  liability  to  the  mother  of 
permanent  and  irreparable  injury,  or  perhaps  laying  the 
train  for  a  premature  death. 

"  Thus  it  is  with  the  family  of  R. — or,  more  properly 
speaking,  thus  it  is  with  that  lonely,  unhappy,  because 
childless  couple,  who,  in  their  early  marriage  day,  long 
years  ago,  threw  away,  like  the  unbelieving  Jew,  the 
pearls  that  would  have  enriched  his  tribe. 

" '  In  England,'  lately  remarked  a  native  of  that  coun- 
try, *  every  mother  feels  proud  of  having  reared  a  large 
family  of  healthy,  joyous  children — ten  or  fifteen  being 
no  unusual  number.  While  the  American  mothers,  I 
observe,  generally  have  small  families,  particularly  in 
the  higher  classes  of  society.'  An  old  and  experienced 
physician  present  significantly  referred  the  speaker  to 
the  advertisements  of  professed  female  physicians,  re- 
marking, that  these  fiends  in  human  form  escaped  un- 
whipped  of  justice,  because  the  patronage  they  received 
enabled  them,  when  prosecuted,  to  employ  the  best  legal 
defence  in  the  country  ;  and  that  their  practice  being 
principally  confined  to  the  wealthy  portion  of  the  com- 
munity, many  a  dark  deed  of  iniquity  has  been  conceal- 
ed— the  patients  in  such  cases  preferring  any  amount  of 
suffering,  or  even  death,  to  the  public  exposure  which 
must  ensue  in  bringing  the  criminal  to  justice. 

"  In  a  subsequent  conversation,  this  physician  stated  to 
the  writer,  that  many  distressing  cases  of  this  kind  had 
fallen  under  his  observation — cases  in  which  it  was  clear 
to  the  experienced  eye  of  the  physician,  that  the  patient 
had  most  ignorantly  tampered  with  her  constitution,  in- 
terfered with,  and  interrupted  the  natural  functions  of 


THE    CASE    OF    MRS.    M .  131 

her  system.  For  after  giving  birth,  at  regular  intervals, 
to  healthy  children,  the  young  and  vigorous  mother  sud- 
denly becomes  sterile.  Years  pass,  during  which  fre- 
quent indispositions  occur,  leaving  behind  them  a  consti- 
tution strangely  shattered,  and  a  nervous  system  in 
ruins.  The  misguided  sufferer  at  length  perceives  the 
dreadful  results  of  her  practices,  and  desists — pregnancy 
ensues,  but  the  whole  term  of  gestation  is  one  of  painful 
debility,  and  at  its  close,  in  the  effort  for  relief,  outraged 
nature  denies  the  necessary  energy  :  the  patient  sinks  to 
the  tomb,  another  victim  to  the  Moloch  of  selfishness, 
leaving  a  family  of  young  children  motherless,  to  grow 
up  in  ignorance  and  tread  the  same  path  of  error  which 
led  to  her  destruction." 

The  very  painful  and  dangerous  consequences  which 
attended  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  abortion,  is  thus 
given  by  an  eminent  practitioner  of  this  city  : 

"  Mrs.  M was  the  mother  of  two  children,  and 

had  been  suffering  severely,  for  the  last  fourteen  hours, 
from  strong  expulsive  pains,  which,  however,  had  not 
caused  the  slightest  progress  in  the  delivery.  I  was 
likewise  informed  that,  about  four  hours  before  I  saw 
the  case,  Dr.  Miner,  an  experienced  physician,  had  been 
sent  for,  and,  after  instituting  a  vaginal  examination,  re- 
marked to  the  attending  physicians,  that,  '  in  all  his 
practice,  he  had  never  met  with  a  similar  case.'  Dr. 
Miner  suggested  the  administration  of  an  anodyne,  and 
having  other  professional  engagements,  left  the  house. 
Mrs.  M—  was  taken  in  labor  Monday,  Dec.  18th,  a 
7  o'clock,  P.  M.,  and  on  Sunday,  at  7  o'clock,  p.  M.,  I 
first  saw  her  Her  pains  were  then  almost  constant, 
and  such  had  been  the  severity  of  her  suffering,  that  her 
r.ries  for  relief,  as  her  medical  attendants  informed  ovj, 


192  THE    CASK    OF    MHS.    M 

had  attracted  crowds  of  people  about  the  door.  A  a 
soon  as  I  entered  her  room  she  exclaimed,  '  For  God  s 
sake,  doctor,  cut  me  open,  or  I  shall  die  ;  I  never  can  be 
delivered  without  you  cut  me  open  !'  I  was  struck 
with  this  language,  especially  as  I  had  already  been  in- 
formed that  she  had  previously  borne  two  children. 

"On  assuring  her  that  she  was  in  a  most  perilous 
situation,  and  at  the  same  time,  promising  that  we 
would  do  all  in  our  power  to  rescue  her,  she  voluntarily 
made  the  following  confession  : 

"  About  six  weeks  after  becoming  pregnant,  she 
called  on  one  of  these  infamous  female  physicians,  who, 
hearing  her  situation,  gave  her  some  powders,  with  di- 
rections for  use;  these  powders,  it  appears, did  not  pro- 
duce the  desired  effect.  She  returned  again  to  this 
woman,  and  asked  her  if  there  were  no  other  way  to 
make  her  miscarry.  '  Yes,'  say?  this  physician,  '  I  can 
probe  you  ;  but  I  must  have  my  price  for  this  operation.' 
*  What  do  you  probe  with  V  '  A  piece  of  whalebone. 
'  Well,'  observed  the  patient,  '  I  cannot  afford  to  pay 
your  price,  and  I  will  probe  myself.'  She  returned 
home,  and  used  the  whalebone  several  times  ;  it  pro- 
duced considerable  pain,  followed  by  a  discharge  of 
blood.  The  whole  secret  was  now  disclosed.  Injuries 
inflicted  on  the  mouth  of  the  womb,  by  other  violent 
attempts,  had  resulted  in  the  circumstances  as  detailed 
above.  It  was  evident,  from  the  nature  of  this  poor 
woman's  sufferings,  and  the  expulsive  character  of  her 
pains,  that  prompt  artificial  delivery  was  indicated.  As 
the  result  of  the  case  was  doubtful,  and  it  was  import- 
ant to  have  the  concurrent  testimony  of  other  medical 
gentlemen,  and  as  it  embodied  great  professional  in- 
terest, I  requested  my  friends,  Drs.  Detmold,  Washing- 


THE    CASE    OF    MRS.    M  193 

ton,  and  Doane,  to  see  it.  They  reached  the  house 
without  delay,  and,  after  examining  minutely  into  all  the 
facts,  it  was  agreed  that  a  bi-lateral  section  of  the  mouth 
of  the  womb  should  be  made. 

"  Accordingly,  without  loss  of  time.  I  performed  the 
operation  in  the  following  manner:  The  patient  was 
brought  to  the  edge  of  the  bed  and  placed  upon  her  back. 
The  index  finger  of  my  left  hand  was  introduced  into  the 
vagina  as  far  as  the  roughness,  which  I  supposed  to  be 
the  seat  of  the  09  tineas.  Then  a  probe-pointed  bistoury, 
the  blade  of  which  had  been  previously  covered  with  a 
band  of  linen  to  within  about  four  lines  of  its  extremity, 
was  carried  along  my  finger,  until  the  point  reached  the 
rough  surface.  I  succeeded  in  introducing  the  point  of 
the  instrument  into  a  very  slight  opening  which  I  found 
in  the  centre  of  this  surface,  and  then  made  an  incision 
of  the  left  lateral  portion  of  the  mouth,  and  before  with- 
drawing the  bistoury,  I  made  the  same  kind  of  incision 
on  the  right  side.  I  then  withdrew  the  instrument,  and 
in  about  five  minutes  it  was  evident  that  the  head  of  the 
child  made  progress.  The  mouth  of  the  womb  dilated 
almost  immediately,  and  the  contractions  were  of  the 
most  expulsive  character.  There  seemed,  however,  to 
be  some  ground  for  apprehension  that  the  mouth  of  the 
uterus  would  not  yield  with  sufficient  readiness,  and  I 
made  an  incision  of  the  posterior  lip,  through  its  centre, 
extending  the  incision  to  within  a  line  of  the  peritorial 

cavity.     In  ten  minutes  from  this  time,  Mrs.  M was 

delivered  of  a  strong  full-grown  child,  whose  boisterous 
cries  were  heard  with  astonishment  by  the  mother,  and 
with  sincere  gratification  by  her  medical  friends.  The 
expression  of  that  woman's  gratitude,  in  thus  being  pre- 
served from  what  she  and  her  friends  supposed  to  be  in- 
17 


104  THE    CASE    OF    MRS.    M 


evitable  death,  was  an  ample  compensation  for  the  anx 
iety  experienced  by  those  who  were  the  humble  instru* 
ments  of  affording  her  relief.  This  patient  recovered 
rapidly,  and  did  not,  during  the  whole  of  her  convales- 
cence, present  one  unpleasant  symptom.  It  is  now  ten 
weeks  since  the  operation,  and  she  and  her  infant  are  in 
the  enjoyment  of  excellent  health. 

"  At  my  last  visit  to  this  patient,  with  Dr.  Forry,  she 
made  some  additional  revelations,  which  I  think  should 
be  given,  not  only  to  the  profession  but  to  the  public, 
in  order  that  it  may  be  known,  that  in  our  very  midst 
there  is  a  monster  who  speculates  with  human  life,  with 
as  much  coolness  as  if  she  were  engaged  in  a  game  of 
chance. 

"  This  patient,  with  unaffected  sincerity,  and  apparent- 
ly ignorant  of  the  moral  turpitude  of  the  act,  stated  most 
unequivocally  to  both  Dr.  Forry  and  myself,  'that  this 
physician,  on  previous  occasions,  had  caused  her  to  mis- 
carry five  times,  and  that  these  miscarriages  had,  in  every 
instance,  been  brought  about  by  drugs  administered  by 
this  trafficker  in  human  life.  The  only  case  in  which 
the  medicines  failed  was  the  last  pregnancy,  when,  at 
the  suggestion  of  this  physician,  she  probed  herself, 
and  induced  the  condition  of  things  described,  and  which 
most  seriously  involved  her  own  safety,  as  well  as  that 
of  her  child.'  In  the  course  of  conversation,  this  woman 
mentioned  that  she  knew  a  great  number  of  persons  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  applying  to  this  physician  for  the 
purpose  of  miscarrying,  and  that  she  scarcely  ever  failed 
in  affording  the  desired  relief;  and,  among  others,  she 
cited  the  case  of  a  female  residing  in  Houston  street, 
who  was  five  months  pregnant :  this  physician  probed 
her,  and  she  was  delivered  of  a  child,  to  use  her  own 


ABORTION     -NVOLVES    MATERNAL   SUICIDE.  195 

expression,  '  THAT  KICKED  SEVERAL  TIMES  AFTER  IT  WAS 

PUT    INTO    THE    BOWL.'  " 

Against  this  deed  of  death  nature  most  solemnly  pro- 
tests, by  rendering  it  so  ruinous  to  the  general  health  of 
the  mother,  and  especially  so  destructive  of  her  SEXUAL 
apparatus.  So  intimate  is  the  relation  between  mother 
and  child,  that  it  is  not  possible  to  destroy  the  life  of  the 
latter,  without  doing  fatal  violence  to  that  of  the  former 
When  she  effects  this  destruction,  by  taking  powerful 
medical  poisons,  such  as  strong  decoctions  of  ergot, 
tansy,  etc.,  she  equally  poisons  HERSELF  ;  for  how  can 
this  poison  be  administered  to  the  child,  except  THROUGH 
HER  BLOOD  ?  And  how  can  that  blood  be  so  effectually 
poisoned  as  to  quench  the  life  of  the  child,  without 
therein  and  thereby  proportionably  poisoning  her  OWN 
system  throughout  ?  And  the  only  reason  why  this 
fatal  draught  does  not  destroy  her  own  life  also,  is  her 
greater  power  of  constitution.  Now,  is  it  possible,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  jo  poison  it  to  death  without  there- 
by palsying,  crushing  her  own  life-power?  ALL  abor- 
tive medicine  this  reciprocity  between  mother  and  child 
equally  condemns. 

It  passes  the  same  sentence  of  maternal  suicide  upor, 
every  and  all  other  POSSIBLE  means  of  producing  mis 
carriages.  Does  not  probing  do  as  great  violence  t( 
her  sexual  organs,  as  to  its  life  ?  The  relation  between 
it  and  them  is  PERFECT,  so  that  whatever  injures  the  one, 
correspondingly  impairs  the  other  also.  And,  since  the 
relation  existing  between  these  organs,  and  her  entire 
physiology  and  mentality,  is  also  perfect,  in  order  that 
it  may  take  on  all  her  existing  conditions  of  mind  and 
body,  of  course  whatever  impairs  it,  correspondingly  in- 
jures not  only  her  sexur  apparatus,  but  thrc  ugh  it  her 


196  RECOVERY    FROM    CONFINEMENT. 

ENTIRE  nature.  And  when  this  violence  is  so  extreme 
as  to  cause  infantile  DEATH,  it  must  necessarily  be  suici- 
dal to  her.  Oh,  if  mothers  only  understood  this  law  of 
intimacy,  they  would  no  more  dare  to  attempt  abortion 
than  suicide,  because  they  would  know  that  the  former 
necessarily  INVOLVED  the  latter  !  Leaving  the  horrible 
crime  of  infanticide  entirely  out  of  the  question,  I  ask, 
prospective  mothers,  how  you  DARE  take  no  small  part 
of  your  OWN  life  ?  I  press  it  solemnly  upon  your  CON- 
SCIENCES, whether  you  had  not  rather  let  nature  take  her 
course,  even  though  you  may  be  unmarried,  than  stand 
before  the  bar  of  your  God,  and  eternal  retribution,  a 
partial  or  total  SUICIDE.  God  forbid  that  you  perpetrate 
this  unpardonable  crime,  in  ADDITION  to  that  of  child- 
murder,  for  you  cannot  commit  the  latter  without  ren- 
dering yourself,  in  part  or  in  whole,  amenable  for  the 
former.  All  the  shame,  all  the  pains,  all  the  cares, 
all  the  troubles  of  child-bearing,  are  trifles  compared 
with  these  two  monstrous  sins.  May  God  Almighty 
deliver  you  from  such  heaven-provoking  enormities  ! 
No  other  deed  so  outrages  Philoprogenitiveness,  Con- 
science, Vitativeness,  Benevolence — every  law  of  health 
and  morals,  as  well  as  every  ordinance  of  nature  and 
command  of  God — or  will  insure  as  terrible  retribution 
here  and  hereafter. 

440.      RECOVERY   FROM   CONFINEMENT. 

Those  who  come  to  their  accouchement  with  good 
health,  need  have  no  fears  of  a  lingering  or  painful 
"getting  up."  The  better  the  general  health,  the  sooner 
the  recovery,  and  the  less  liability  to  those  complaints 
incident  to  confinement.  General  attention  to  the  laws 
of  health,  too,  is  a  far  more  effectual  remedy  than  a  re- 


THE    DRUGGING    SYSTEM    PERNICIOUS.  197 

sort  to  dosing  and  drugging.  Women  at  these  periods 
need  neither  emetics  nor  purgings.  The  water  treat- 
ment here,  as  in  labor  itself,  is  incomparably  superior  to 
the  old  practice.  Nursing  is  required  i'ar  more  than 
doctoring.  Or,  rather,  what  the  patient  requires,  main- 
ly, is  to  let  NATURE  do  her  own  work  in  her  own  way. 
Such  exposures  as  are  calculated  to  bring  on  a  relapse, 
should  be  sedulously  avoided,  and  this  is  the  main  se- 
cret. 

One  single  principle  will  suffice  to  prove,  that  the 
drugging  system  is  most  pernicious — its  influence  on 
the  child.  That  the  mother's  milk  is  the  child's  natural 
food,  will  presently  be  shown  ;  and  that  ALL  medicines 
taken  by  the  mother,  are  secreted  directly  from  the 
mother's  system  into  this  milk,  is  an  established  fact. 
Hence,  all  physic  administered  to  the  mother  similarly 
affects  the  child  also;  and  all  drugging  of  infants,  must, 
in  the  very  nature  of  things,  disorder  and  poison  their 
systems.  You  cannot  doctor  the  mother,  without  there- 
in and  thereby  doctoring  the  child;  and  against  all  med- 
ical interference  with  the  child's  system,  in  the  name 
of  nature,  I  unequivocally  protest.  No  more  effectual 
method  of  injuring  the  extremely  susceptible  systems 
of  infants,  can  be  devised.  I  solemnly  warn  mothers 
and  nurses  against  it ;  and  this,  of  course,  interdicts  all 
administrations  of  medicines  to  nursing  mothers. 

"  But  her  bowels  require  relaxing,  or  checking,  and 
this  or  that  systematic  difficulty  requires  to  be  regu- 
lated." Then  relax,  restrain,  and  regulate  by  FOOD  AND 
WATER  ;  directions  for  doing  which  will  be  found  in 
-  Physiology,  Animal  and  Mental " 153- '«• iai- 164- le9- 175.  The 
idea  that  medicines  can  remove  disease  or  restore  to 
health,  is  preposterous.  These  a  *e  nature's  EXCLUSIVE 
17* 


198  RELAPSES    DANGEROUS 

works.  She  does  this  partly  by  medicated  FOOD,  Herbs, 
etc.,  and  hence  all  medicines  should  be  EATEN  IN  FOOD, 
and  form  a  part  of  our  diet.  The  medicated  herbs,  etc., 
should  THEMSELVES  be  eaten,  not  their  decoctions,  ex- 
tracts, etc.,  be  taken  in  a  concentrated  form.  This 
healing  law  applies  with  peculiar  force  to  nursing  mo- 
thers. And  of  all  remedial  agents,  I  consider  FRUITS 
the  best,  as  they  certainly  are  the  most  palatable  F'37. 

RELAPSES. 

As  the  mother's  system  is  now  unusually  susceptible 
to  foreign  influences,  any  violence  done  her  brings  on  a 
relapse,  which  is  usually  more  painful  and  dangerous 
than  the  confinement  itself.  Suppose  such  a  disaster 
has  befallen  her,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  First,  ascertain 
its  CAUSE.  This  will  generally  be  found  in  one  of  two 
things — over-exertion,  or  colds — and  usually  the  two 
combined. 

What  is  then  to  be  done  ?  Resort  to  the  opposite 
extreme.  If  over-exertion  caused  it,  take  extra  pains  to 
keep  the  whole  system  quiet,  and  let  tired  nature  rest. 
Indeed,  she  requires  rest,  calm,  quiet  sleep,  more  at  this 
period  than  any  other  thing,  a  right  diet  not  excepted. 
Her  system  has  put  forth  a  mighty  effort,  is  exhausted, 
and  therefore  requires  REST.  Whatever  is  calculated  to 
vex  or  perplex  her  is  always  injurious,  and  especially 
detrimental  in  relapses.  All  should  be  pleasurable,  and 
she  rendered  as  happy  as  possible. 

But  if,  as  is  most  probable,  the  relapse  was  caused  by 
cold,  BREAK  IT  UP  AS  SOON  AS  POSSIBLE.  This  can  best 
be  effected  by  producing  PERSPIRATION.  Cold  consists 
in  suppressed  perspiration,  and  can  therefore  be  cured 
by,  and  only  by  RESTORING  this  perspiration.  And  for 


BLEEDING  AND  CALOMEL  PRACTICE.         199 

effecting  this,  water  and  friction  are  by  far  the  best  in 
strumentalities.  But  for  the  full  presentation  of  this  sub- 
iect,  the  reader  is  referred  again  to  Physiology 107>108-108-  ul. 

A  most  affecting  instance  of  the  destructive  conse- 
quences of  the  bleeding  and  calomel  practice,  recently 
fell  under  the  author's  observation.  Mrs.  M.,  confined 
with  her  sixth  child,  recovered  very  rapidly  for  about  a 
week,  when,  on  her  mother's  coming  to  see  her,  she  sat 
up  most  of  a  cold,  raw  April  day,  took  a  chill,  and  sent 
toward  night  in  considerable  haste  for  her  doctor — a 
great  lancet  and  calomelite.  He  put  her,  to  use  his  own 
words  to  me,  "under  the  usual  treatment  in  such  cases" 
— that  is,  bled  and  salivated.  Meanwhile,  the  child  had 
to  be  nursed,  which  alone  reprobates  this  practice. 
"  But,"  continued  he,  "  she  was  attacked  with  a  severe 
rheumatic  affection,  which  settled  in  her  limbs — espe- 
cially knees."  His  own  story  satisfied  me,  fully,  that  the 
poisonous  CALOMEL  produced  these  most  excruciating 
rheumatic  sufferings,  under  which  she  gradually  sank ; 
yet,  having  a  powerful  constitution,  the  wretched  pa- 
tient suffered  beyond  all  endurance,  but  finally  yielded 
to  the  deadly  poison,  and  died,  a  martyr  to  calomel, 
universally  lamented,  and  an  irreparable  loss  to  her 
husband  and  family. 

The  too  early  dismissal  of  her  nurse,  also  doubtless 
contributed  to  this  sad  result.  Mothers  should  not  be 
too  strong  too  soon.  They  often  retard  recovery  by 
being  too  smart,  and  by  sewing  as  soon  and  as  long  as 
they  are  able  to  sit  up.  Let  your  sewing  go.  Dismiss 
all  family  cares.  Consider  yourself  fully  entitled  to  a 
long  holiday.  And  as  soon  as  you  arc  able  to  be  "  up 
and  doing,"  instead  of  working,  RECREATE.  I  would  not 
recommend  tiat  you  keep  your  bed  an  hour  longer  thau 


200  DIET    OP    RECENTLY-CONFINED    MOTHERS. 

is  really  necessary— of  which  fact  judge  for  yourselves 
• — but  I  insist  upon  your  riding  and  walking  out,  seeking 
amusement,  chatting  pleasurably  with  friends,  etc.,  in- 
stead of  taxing  your  weak  system  with  LABOR.  This 
"keeping  the  bed  nine  days,  till  the  parts  unite,"  irre- 
spective of  the  patient's  state  of  health,  is  a  granny's 
whim.  Some  are  able  to  be  up  and  about  in  two  or 
three  days,  while  others  require  to  keep  their  beds  as 
many  weeks  or  months.  Nor  can  any  other  one  judge 
for  them,  but  each  must  decide  for  themselves.  Yet  in 
general  there  is  more  danger  of  getting  about  too  soon 
than  of  keeping  confined  too  long. 

THE    DIET    OF    RECENTLY-CONFINED    MOTHERS. 

On  this  very  much  depends.  It  should  be  much  as 
that  already  recommended  before  confinement428 — nutri- 
tious, yet  easily  digested.  Wheat  boiled,  cracked,  or 
coarse  ground,  and  made  into  bread  or  puddings,  in 
connection  with  sweet  fruits,  eaten  freely,  and  perhaps 
milk  and  cream,  will  probably  be  found  the  best  general 
diet.  In  meat,  gravies,  butter,  I  do  not  believe.  They 
are  too  strong  and  too  heating. 

Porter,  so  much  used  by  many  English  women,  I  re- 
gard as  particularly  injurious  to  both  mother  and  child. 
It  contains  considerable  alcohol,  and  this  is  rank  poison 
to  infants.  It  powerfully  irritates  and  stimulates  the 
child,  whereas  it  requires  sleep  and  quiet.  Cocoa  con- 
tains all  the  nutrition  required,  and  has  a  very  soothing 
and  quieting  influence  on  the  mother  and  child — exactly 
what  both  require.  This  drink  probably  stands  unri- 
valed. If  the  grease  it  contains  is  objectionable,  let  it 
cooj  ind  skim,  and  re-warm  or  drink  cold  ;  but  as  a 
drink  for  nursing  mothers,  it  far  surpasses  tea  or  coffee 


NURSING CUTTING    THE    NAVEL    CORD.  201 

neither  of  which  they  ought  ever  to  take.  Fresh  air 
wholesome  food,  and  as  much  exercise  as  can  be  taken 
without  injury,  are  the  panaceas  of  confined  mothers. 

441.       THE   NURSING    AND    MANAGEMENT    OF    INFANTS. 

The  author  does  not  claim  to  be  a  nurse.  He  is  per- 
fectly aware  that  women  instinctively  understand  this 
subject  better  than  men,  and  hence  proposes  only  to  of- 
fer a  few  general  suggestions,  based  in  physiological 
principles  too  often  overlooked  by  nurses.  Yet  though 
women  have  more  of  the  child-caring  instinct  than  men, 
they  generally  err  in  one  essential  respect — they  OVER- 
NURSE.  They  too  often  literally  KILL  WITH  KINDNESS. 
This  their  excessive  Philoprogenitiveness,  too  gener- 
ally ungoverned  by  intellect,  predisposes  them  to  do. 
Their  LOVE  for  the  new  comer  exceeds  their  knowledge 
of  the  best  mode  of  managing  it,  and  hence  they  devise 
a  thousand  things  for  its  comfort  which  are  most  detri- 
mental. But,  to  begin  with  its  proper  treatment  from 
birth : 

TIME    OF    CUTTING    THE    NAVEL    CORD. 

Is  not  this  generally  done  too  soon  ?  What  harm  can 
accrue  from  leaving  this  connection  unsevered  for  some 
minutes  ?  On  the  contrary,  would  not  a  decided  benefit 
result  therefrom  ?  The  more  of  the  mother's  blood  the 
child  can  retain  the  better.  Now  by  leaving  the  umbili- 
cal cord  uncut  a  few  minutes,  it  is  obvious  that  more 
blood  will  be  propelled  from  the  mother  into  the  child, 
than  will  be  withdrawn  from  the  child  to  the  mother. 
At  least  till  all  pulsation  in  this  cord  has  ceased,  it 
should  not  be  cut.  This  is  too  apparent  to  require 
proof. 

In  Ireland,  the  cua;om  prevails,  of  not  only  not  sever- 


2CJ  VASHING    AND    DRESSING. 

ing  the  connection  at  one  3,  but  of  gently  pressing  the 
blood  along  from  mother  to  child ;  and  I  have  known 
several  cases  of  children  born  nearly  dead,  evidently 
resuscitated  by  leaving  this  connection  unsevered  for 
iome  time  ;  whereas  if  it  had  been  cut  immediately,  they 
would  have  died.  We  commend  this  point  to  the  care- 
ful consideration  of  midwives.  Still,  care  must  be  taken 
lest  the  child  take  cold. 

WASHING. 

This  should  be  performed  just  as  soon  as  possible  af- 
ter the  navel  cord  is  cut,  and  done  as  rapidly  as  a  due 
regard  to  tenderness  will  allow,  in  water  nearly  blood- 
warm,  followed  by  rubbing  with  the  bar.  1.  A  case 
came  under  my  own  observation  where  the  nurse  was 
so  long  in  washing  and  dressing  a  child,  that  it  took  a 
cold  from  which  it  did  not  recover  for  several  weeks, 
and  probably  will  never  wholly  get  over  it. 

DRESSING. 

To  wait  to  put  on  the  common  under  and  outer 
nlothes  now  used,  is  altogether  wrong.  WRAP  THEM  IN 

A  WOOLLEN    BLANKET.       They  QFC    USUally    OVER-DRESSED. 

I  would  have  them  kept  warm,  but  this  CLOTHES  CAN 
NEVER  DO  p- U5>  118>  12°.  Their  own  internal  heat  must 
warm  them,  or  they  must  remain  cold.  All  that  clothes 
can  do  is  to  retard  the  escape  of  heat — not  to  create 
that  heat.  But  they  are  generally  dressed  too  warmly; 
then  the  room  is  usually  kept  too  warm,  and  they  are 
often  kept  under  an  excess  of  bed-clothes — too  much 
for  them  even  if  naked.  And  all  in  consequence  of  the 
extra  Cautiousness  and  Philoprogenitiveness  of  mothers 
and  nurses.  This  weakens  their  skin,  induces  too 
great  perspiration,  and  exposes  them  to  colds.  Be  per- 


"  A    DOSE    OF    SWEET    OIL."  203 

Buaded  not  to  over-clothe,  .ind  lay  them  ON  abto*  instead 
of  "under  bed-clothes,  for  that  clothing  which  suffices 
them  when  awake  is  all-sufficient  when  asleep. 

Also  put  on  no  caps.  They  are  especially  injurious. 
Yet  this  practice  is  now  generally  obsolete. 

"  A    DOSE    OF    SWEET    OIL," 

Must  of  course  be  administered  immediately  on  theW 
being  dressed.  This  is  both  utterly  unnecessary,  and 
especially  pernicious.  The  simple  fact  that  the  first 
nourishment  received  from  the  mother  is  aperient,  is 
proof  positive  that  no  other  purgation  is  needed.  Since 
nature  has  thus  provided  for  moving  their  bowels,  why 
make  any  additional  provision?  The  fact  that  nature 
always  takes  this  work  in  hand,  shows  that  art  should 
not  interfere.  What  proof  can  be  stronger  ?  What 
needs  to  be  done,  nature  will  do,  and  the  fact  that  she 
always  undertakes  it,  is  ample  guarantee  t-.i.it  it  will  be 
WELL  done. 

Besides,  all  such  medicines  only  induce  the  ^ery  con- 
stipation designed  to  be  removed.  It  is  the  ri^ture  of 
ALL  aperients  to  tighten  the  bowels  AFTESWA?O.  This 
is  an  absolutely  necessary  consequence  of  oil  purga- 
tives. How  especially  palsying,  then,  to  the  weak  and 
highly  susceptible  bowels  of  infants  ?  It  DISORDERS 
them  ALWAYS,  and  in  the  very  CONSTITUTION  OF  THINGS. 
They  are  always  left  worse  than  they  would  have  been 
without  any  aperients.  Let  nature  alone,  and  she  will 
move  the  bowels  in  due  time,  unless  the  mother  is  very 
much  disordered.  Or  if,  in  extreme  cases,  a^t  should 
be  required  to  quicken  her  movements — which  I  exceed- 
ingly doubt — tepid  water  is  aid  enough,  and  leaves  no 
palsying  influer  'e  behind.  Not  a  few  of  the  colics,  and 


204  NATURAL    FOOZ    OF    INFANTS. 

stomach  aches,  and  kindred  complaaits  which  distress 
children,  have  their  origin  in  sweet  oil.  I  repeat,  give 
NO  medicines  to  either  mother  or  child.  Yet,  if  aperi- 
ents should  be  needed,  let  the  MOTHER  EAT  OPENING  FOOD. 

NATURAL    FOOD    OF    INFANTS. 

That  its  mother's  milk  is  the  only  natural  food  of  the 
infant,  is  perfectly  obvious,  from  the  fact  that  nature  has 
made  provision  for  no  other.  She  never  fails  to  make 
AMPLE  provision,  and  that  of  the  VERY  best  kind.  And 
that  provision  she  has  made  in  the  mother's  milk.  It  is 
PERFECTLY  adapted  to  the  nutrition  of  infants.  It  con- 
tains just  the  elements  required  for  sustaining  life,  and 
developing  all  the  organs,  and  in  the  most  soluble  form, 
possible.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  adaptation  of  the 
mother's  milk  to  infantile  nutrition  and  growth.  That 
child  is  really  to  be  pitied  who  has  not  abundance  of 
such  nourishment.  The  fact  that  they  have  no  teeth  is 
negative  proof  of  a  positive  character,  that  solid  food  is 
not  adapted  to  them.  As  the  specific  object  of  teeth  is 
to  masticate  solid  food,  of  course  the  latter  should  noC 
be  given  till  the  former  appear  in  sufficient  abundance 
to  masticate. 

Of  course,  in  case  the  mother's  milk  is  insufficient  or 
diseased,  better  that  infants  be  fed  than  starved.  Solid 
food  rather  than  none  ;  yet  mothers  who  have  taken 
first-rate  care  of  their  health,  all  along  up  from  girlhood, 
will  always  have  an  abundance  of  milk,  for  nature,  left 
to  herself,  always  provides  a  surplus  instead  of  allowing 
a  deficit.  The  reason  why  so  many  mothers  have  too 
little  milk,  is  their  previous  destruction  of  health,  and 
injury  of  their  female  organs.  Whatever  impairs  the 
health,,  and  especially  the  digestion,  lessens  the  quantity 


LARGE    BREASTS.  205 

and  impairs  the  quality  of  their  milk.  That  they,  in 
common  with  the  impairment  of  the  female  organs, 
diminish  the  SIZE  of  the  breasts,  has  already  been 
shown424,  and  whatever  lessens  their  size  diminishes 
their  efficiency.  Of  course  there  are  human,  as  well  as 
other  females,  who,  though  healthy,  give  but  little  milk, 
because  their  vitality,  though  abundant,  is  mainly  re- 
tained for  their  own  personal  use,  just  as  there  are 
others  who  run  so  much  to  milk  as  to  keep  themselves 
poor.  Yet  there  are  few  females  who  would  not,  if 
healthy,  give  milk  enough  for  a  child.  The  chief  cause 
of  deficient  milk,  is  too  little  vitality.  Keep  this  abun- 
dant, and  this  difficulty  will  rarely  occur.  And  those 
who,  though  healthy,  furnish  too  little  milk,  can  always 
be  selected  before  marriage,  and  by  those  very  signs 
which  indicate  good  milking  capabilities  in  stock.  Good 
milking  capabilities  are  one  important  sign  of  female 
perfection,  and  as  easily  predicated  of  the  human  as 
brute  females,  for  the  signs  of  both  are  the  same. 


LARGE    BREASTS 


Generally  indicate  good  nursing  capacity.  Fleshy, 
corpulent  women  form  a  partial  exception,  because  their 
breasts  are  composed  proportionably  of  fat,  yet  a  prac- 
ticed observer  can  easily  see  how  much  allowance  is  to 
be  made  on  this  score.  A  large  pelvis  is  also  generally 
accompanied  by  a  good  supply  of  milk.  It  is  strange 
that  all — men  especially — cannot  designate  a  good  and 
a  poor  female  at  a  glance  ;  and  one  who  is  a  good  fe- 
male, will  rarely  if  ever  fail  in  this  important  respect. 

Large  breasts,  therefore,  are  quite  important  in  a  can- 
didate for  matrimony,  and  small  ones  indicative  of  other 
defects  besides  poor  nurses.  Let  me,  then,  again  urge 
18 


206  TIMES    OF    NURSIXG. 

upon  our  -young  women  and  bearing  matrons,  to  take 
that  care  of  their  health  which  shall  secure  round  forms 
and  full  breasts  Mark,  moreover,  that,  at  every  step 
of  our  progress,  from  the  very  commencement  of  this 
work,  we  find  icquisition  after  requisition  for  MATERNAL 
HEALTH.  This  is  the  PARAMOUNT  maternal  requisition. 
Will  not  our  women  learn  wisdom  from  this  "  line  upon 
line,  and  precept  upon  precept"  of  nature  ? 

But  where  maternal  nutrition  is  not  adequate  to  the 
infant's  demand,  it  must  of  course  be  fed.  Fed  by 
WHAT?  That  which  most  nearly  resembles  its  mother's 
rnilk.  In  this  respect,  goat's  milk  probably  stands  fore- 
most. Yet  cow's  milk  answers  a  good  purpose.  And 
when  fed,  it  should  be  as  WARM  FROM  THE  cow  as  it  can 
well  be,  and  always  from  the  SAME  cow,  and  that  a 
young  and  healthy  one.  It  should  be  diluted  with  one 
half  water,  and  be  given  blood  warm,  yet  heated  by  the 
water  put  in  instead  of  by  the  fire,  because  the  latter 
causes  a  skin  to  rise  which  contains  some  of  the  most 
nutritious  materials  of  the  milk.  Neither  arrow  root 
nor  barley  or  rice  water,  nor  any  of  the  gums,  equal 
NEW  MILK,  of  which  the  economy  of  nature  is  abundant 
guarantee.  And  this  milk  is  better  given  from  the 
sucking  bottle  than  with  the  spoon. 

TIMrS    OF    NURSING. 

This  is  another  important  matter.  Most  mothers  err 
exceedingly  in  giving  their  children  the  breast  TOO 
OFTEN,  and  IRREGULARLY,  or  whenever  they  cry.  Very 
likely  their  crying  was  caused  by  over-feeding,  and  con- 
sequent flatulence  or  colic,  and  they  only  increase  the 
difficulty  by  trying  to  obviate  it.  The  child  will  tell,  by 
other  palpable  signs  besides  crying,  when  it  needs  to 


PERIODICITY    OF    BATHING    AND    SI  SEP.  207 

nurse,  and  it  is  ample  time  to  nurse  it  when  it  asks  ear- 
nestly for  the  breast. 

But  this  whole  difficulty  can  be  completely  obviated 
by  nursing  the  child  at  SPECIFIED  times.  How  often,  is 
less  material  than  regularity.  A  time  for  every  thing, 
and  every  thing  in  its  time,  is  a  fundamental  law  of 
nature,  and  one  which  can  be  employed  with  special 
benefit  in  child-nursing.  Nature  is  perfect  clock-work. 
Then  should  not  that  part  of  it  which  relates  to  the 
management  of  children  be  regulated  by  the  clock? 
PERIODICITY  should  be  faithfully  observed  in  every  thing 
done  for  them.  They  should  be  bathed  all  over  every 
day  at  one  specified  hour,  put  to  sleep  at  just  such  and 
such  intervals,  and  nursed  by  the  clock.  Nor  was  it  in 
the  power  of  Astor,  with  all  his  millions,  to  confer  on 
his  descendants  as  great  a  legacy  as  every  mother,  how- 
ever poor,  can  confer  on  her  children  by  observing  this 
regularity.  And  it  should  be  continued  through  child- 
hood and  through  life,  for  nothing  will  contribute  more 
to  health,  happiness,  and  virtue. 

And  the  relief  this  practice  affords  mothers  alone  en- 
titles it  to  observance.  Take  sleep  as  an  example.  Put 
your  child  to  bed  from  the  first  at  given  times,  and  you 
can  soon  ascertain  within  a  few  minutes  how  long  it 
will  sleep,  and  this  will  give  you  just  such  hours,  every 
day,  to  yourself,  to  ride,  or  -nake  calls,  or  do  what  you 
please. 

Mothers  generally  keep  themselves  at  home  from 
evening  meetings,  lectures,  etc.,  whereas  they  might  just 
as  well  go  as  not.  Suppose  you  put  your  child  to  bed 
even:ngs  at  seven,  or  a  quai  ter  before,  you  can  easily 
so  arrange  it  that  it  shall  sleep  soundly  till  nine,  or  half 
past  nine,  and  then,  after  nursing  and  playing  a  .ittle, 


208  THE    CRYING    OF    CHILDREN. 

put  it  to  bed  for  the  night ;  nor  nurse  it  again  till  five 
o'clock  next  morning.  It  will  soon  become  so  habitua- 
ted as  to  fall  asleep,  awaken,  and  require  nursing  at 
these  particular  times,  and  NO  OTHERS,  and  this  course 
will  save  mothers  more  than  half  the  burden  of  the  extra 
trouble  they  now  impose  on  themselves,  besides  the  in- 
calculable benefits  it  will  confer  on  the  children  them- 
selves. Mothers  who  have  not  tried  it,  can  form  no 
conception  of  the  utility  of  this  policy. 

Every  four  or  five  hours  is  probably  often  enough. 
Suppose  you  nurse  at  five,  nine  and  a  quarter,  A.  M.,  one 
and  a  half,  five  and  three  quarters,  and  ten,  p.  M.  Yet  my 
own  full  conviction  is,  that  once  in  five  or  five  and  a 
half  hours  is  better,  and  then  you  might  say  five,  ten 
and  a  half,  four,  and  nine  and  a  half.  Or  if  you  prefer 
three  and  a  half  hours,  say  at  five,  eight  and  a  half, 
twelve,  three  and  a  half,  seven,  and  ten  ;  or  if  four  hours, 
say  at  five,  nine,  one,  five,  and  nine  and  a  half.  Yet 
every  mother  can  adopt  such  other  times  as  she  likes 
best.  They  will  do  better  on  five  hours  or  over,  than 
less  than  four.  Yet  their  systems  will  soon  adapt  them- 
selves to  whatever  times  may  be  appointed.  Hence 
whatever  times  you  select,  be  REGULAR. 

Of  course  their  bathing,  which  should  be  continued 
through  childhood,  should  also  be  regular ;  and  I  would 
suggest  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  as  best,  and  sleep 
soon  after,  and  again  about  one. 

Their  under  garments  should  be  changed  often,  and 
special  attention  be  directed  to  the  skin. 

THE    CRYING    OF    CHILDREN. 

Most  mothers  consider  crying  as  necessary  as  eating. 
Far  otherwise.  Such  crying  is  a  sure  index  that  some 


MANAGEMENT    OF    CROSS    CHILDREN.  209 

of  nature's  laws  have  been  violated,  and  the  chila  ac- 
cordingly distressed.  The  saying,  "  That  is  a  good 
child  which  is  good  with  good  tending,"  is  based  in  igno- 
rance. The  order  of  nature  is,  that  children  SHOULD 
NOT  CRY  AT  ALL.  Infants  sleep  most  of  the  time  till 
their  mothers  disorder  their  own  stomachs,  and  thereby 
derange  their  children's,  and  this  occasions  that  pain 
which  causes  them  to  cry.  They  rarely,  if  ever,  cry 
for  crossness,  but  generally  on  account  of  distress.  Of 
this  distress  there  is  no  need,  nor  of  course  of  its  bois- 
terous effects.  How  instinctively  does  their  crying 
awaken  our  pity.  Why  ?  .Because  we  are  intuitively 
conscious  that  they  suffer.  The  order  of  nature  is  to 
render  them  happy,  and  this  will  prevent  their  crying 
Those  mothers  who  are  tormented  with  cross  children, 
deserve  the  blame  themselves.  They  are  ignorant 
who  do  not  know  how  to  manage  their  children  so  that 
they  will  rarely  cry.  Strange  that  girls  and  young 
mothers  enter  upon  married  life  without  one  correct 
physiological  idea  upon  this  subject,  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  their  happiness. 

And  when  the  child  does  cry,  they  jolt,  toss,  rock,  and 
dose  or  stuff  it,  which  only  increase  its  discomfort  and 
consequent  cries.  They  must  give  it  this  tea  and  that 
medicine,  which,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  increase 
the  distress.  Catnip  tea,  provided  it  is  VERY  weak,  is 
not  particularly  detrimental,  yet  warm  water,  sweeten- 
ed, is  perhaps  better.  Try  it,  when  your  children  are 
cross,  and  you  will  find  it  to  act  like  magic. 

"  But,"  you  urge,  "  my  child  is  cross,  spiteful,  and 
angry."     And  do  you  not  know  that  temper  always  ac- 
companies sickness,  except  where  it  is  so  severe  as  to 
cause  prostration  ?     Aro  not  children  always  peevish 
18* 


210  MANAGEMENT    OF    SICK    CHILDREN. 

and  irritable  when  unwell  ?  Hence  your  objection  be- 
comes my  argument.  And  if  they  are  NATURALLY  ill- 
natured,  very  likely  you  entailed  it  upon  them  before 
they  were  born.  Yet  even  this  pre-supposes  that  your 
o\vn  feverish  state  of  body  caused  your  and  their  petu- 
lance, so  that  they  are  to  be  pitied,  instead  of  scolded. 

Against  much  rocking,  jolting,  trotting,  and  carrying 
children,  I  protest.  They  do  no  good,  because  they  do 
not  remove  that  bad  feeling  which  causes  the  crying. 
But  they  do  prevent  REST,  which  would  cure  both  dis- 
ease and  crossness.  Infants  require  to  be  kept  still  and 
quiet  most  of  the  time.  As^  soon  as  they  need  exercise 
they  will  contrive  ways  and  means  to  take  it  of  them 
selves. 

MANAGEMENT   OF    SICK    CHILDREN. 

Our  suggestion,  that  children  are  often  seriously  injured 
by  over-care  and  fussing,  is  doubly  true  when  they  are 
SICK.  Of  course  parental  anxiety  is  EXTREME,  and  one 
recourse  after  another  is  tried  in  such  quick  succession, 
that  each  nullifies  the  effect  of  the  preceding  remedy,  and 
every  one  only  increases  the  disease.  The  fatal  error  is 
the  supposition  that  MEDICINES  can  cure.  This  is  impos- 
sible. NATURE  ALONE  can  remove  disease,  and  effect  a 
cure,  and  the  less  she  is  interfered  with  the  better.  Do 
too  LITTLE  rather  than  too  much.  In  general,  medicines 
kill  many  more  than  they  cure,  even  of  adults,  and  ten- 
fold more  children.  Their  systems  are  exceedingly 
susceptible,  so  that  medicines  take  a  powerful  hold  on 
them,  and  therefore  cannot  but  derange  and  weaken 
their  organs.  The  more  powerful  medicines  are  almost 
certain  death  to  them.  How  can  they  possibly  with- 
stand them  ?  Doctors  are  utterly  unfit  to  prescribe  for 
them.  "  Old  granny  medicines  "  are  far  better  ;  that  is 


PLACIDITY    OF    MIND    DESIRABLE   WHILE    NURSING.    211 

less  injurious.  But  the  water  cure  is  the  treatment  of 
all  others  for  them.  Still,  if  medicines  must  be  taken, 
let  the  mother  take  them,  and  the  child  then  nurse  them 
from  her. 

Yet  the  art  is  to  KEEP  them  well.  And  this  can  al- 
ways and  easily  be  done.  They  will  never  be  sick, 
unless  mother  or  child  palpably  violate  the  laws  Of 
health.  These  laws  every  mother  should  understand. 
Oh,  when  will  our  girls  give  to  PHYSIOLOGY  a  part  of  that 
time  and  energy  now  worse  than  wasted  on  dress  ? 

NURSING    CHILDREN    WHEN    THE    MOTHER    IS    ANGRY, 

Has  a  pernicious  influence  on  them.  In  some  na- 
tions, mothers  make  it  a  superstitious  practice  to  nurse 
only  when  in  a  quiet  frame  of  mind.  All  the  feelings 
of  the  mother  are  faithfully  transmitted  to  her  milk. 
How,  will  be  seen  in  Physiology  132.  All  her  mental 
troubles,  her  nursing  child  feels.  Mothers,  observe, 
that  when  any  thing  occurs  to  make  you  feel  bad,  you 
will  soon  find  them  begin  to  worry  and  cry,  just  as,  be- 
fore birth,  it  causes  unusual  motion  in  your  womb. 
Placidity  of  mind  is  peculiarly  desirable  during  he 
whole  time  of  nursing. 

HOW    LONG    SHALL    CHILDREN    NURSE  V 

Nature  requires  that  they  nurse  considerably  longer 
than  the  feebleness  and  diseases  of  mothers  now  render 
it  expedient  that  they  should.  As  most  mothers  now 
are,  probably  one  year  is  quite  long  enough,  yet  my 
own  conviction  is,  that  if  mother  and  child  were  kept  in 
a  state  of  perfect  health,  they  should  nurse  till  three  or 
four  years  old.  Yet  our  mothers  generally  are  so  full 
of  disease,  that,  in  from  six  to  nine  months,  infants  im» 


212  EDUCATION-  OF  INFANTS. 

bibe  quite  as  much  disease  as  they  can  sustain.  Yet 
here,  too,  all  depends  on  the  state  of  the  mother's  health. 
The  better  it  is,  the  longer  they  should  nurse. 

442.       THE    EDUCATION    OF    INFANTS. 

This  point  is  one  of  great  practical  importance — suffi 
cient  to  require  a  volume  for  its  complete  elucidation. 
Yet  we  are  compelled  to  treat  it  cursorily. 

Few  realize  to  what  an  extent  infantile  minds  are  sus- 
ceptible of  development,  and  how  much  they  can  be 
taught.  Every  day  and  hour  their  minds  can  be  sharp- 
ened up  and  expanded  by  maternal  actions,  looks,  and 
expressions.  Even  before  they  can  understand  the 
meaning  of  words,  they  FEEL  the  full  force  of  intona- 
tions. Mind  constitutionally  quickens  mind,  and  the 
more  the  mother  or  nurse  puts  forth,  the  more  they 
imbibe. 

In  view  of  this  truth,  I  protest  against  the  common 
baby  talk  with  which  children  are  dosed.  It  consists 
in  saying  very  silly  things,  in  a  very  silly  manner.  My 
great  objection  to  it  is,  that  this  silliness  must  of  neces- 
sity be  uttered  in  flat,  foolish  intonations,  and  these  simi- 
larly affect  their  tender  minds.  But  if  the  operations 
of  the  mother's  mind  are  sensible  and  vigorous,  they 
will  stir  up  the  child's  mind  similarly.  Every  look, 
every  intonation,  affects  them  in  like  manner. 

RETAIN    THEIR    NORMALITY. 

But  the  great  end  of  infantile  training  should  be  to 
retain  their  NORMALITY,  or  naturalness  of  feeling.  At 
first,  all  their  feelings  are  pure  and  right,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  natural  fitness  of  things.  But  society  is 
in  a  wretchedly  perverted  state.  Heaven-wide,  and 


INFANTS    SHOULD    RETAIN    THEIR    NORMALITY.        213 

most  unaccountable,  is  man's  departure  from  the  basis 
of  his  nature.  And  this  mental  distortion  is  imparted 
even  to  infants.  How  often  are  they  scolded,  and  their 
tender  souls  calloused  to  good  impressions,  and  their 
pure  feelings  harrowed  up  by  the  distorted  faculties  of 
those  around  them  !  Most  children  are  soured,  per- 
verted, and  spoiled  BEFORE  THEY  ARE  THREE  YEARS  OLD, 
by  the  irritability  and  evil  passions  of  others.  It  is  to 
this  DISTORTION  AND  PERVERSION  of  their  faculties  that 
special  attention  is  invited.  They  should  never  be 
chided.  If  they  evince  temper,  it  is  because  their 
physiology  is  in  an  irritated  state,  and  this  inflames 
Combativeness  and  Destructiveness.  Cure  their  BOWES, 
and  you  will  cure  their  tempers.  Be  gentle  and  sweet 
to  them,  and  you  will  find  them  apt  copyists  of  what- 
ever patterns  you  set  them.  Would  that  mothers  and 
nurses  could  be  made  to  feel  the  importance  of  their  al- 
ways being  lovely,  amiable,  and  good  to  infants,  as  well 
as  the  evils  of  all  warring,  unkind  passions  in  themselves. 
Would  that  they  could  but  realize  how  much  their  future 
characters  depend  on  the  direction  their  minds  receive 
in  the  cradle. 

Much  more  might  be  said,  and  better  said,  on  this 
fruitful  theme  of  the  management  of  infants  ;  yet  the 
great  thought  which  the  book  was  written  to  develop  is 
—not  the  management  of  infants — but  THE  STATES  or 
THE  MOTHER'S  MIND  AND  BODY,  AS  AFFECTING  THE  CONSTI- 
TUTIONAL PHYSIOLOGY  AND  MENTALITY  OF  OFFSPRING. 

Since,  therefore,  this  infantile  training  is  only  a  second- 
ary matter,  it  has  been  thus  cursorily  treated.  As 
woman  is  best  adapted  to  give  its  details,  all  we  have 
attempted  is  the  statement  of  some  of  those  fundamental 
physiological  principles  which  govern  this  matter,  which, 


214          SLEMENTS  OF  FEMALE  BEAUTY. 

though  imperfectly  presented,  will  doubtless  be  of  no 
small  service  to  some  mothers  in  their  nursing  capaci- 
ties. Future  editions  may  possibly  present  this  part  of 
our  subject  more  fully.  We  specially  commend  it  to 
the  observation  and  study  of  mothers,  and,  moreover, 
EARNESTLY  recommend  young  women  to  make  it  an  in- 
tegral part  of  their  educational  course.  Than  how  to 
CARRY  children,  they  can  learn  nothing  more  important 
than  how  to  NURSE  them. 

443.       FEMALE    BEAUTY ITS    ELEMENTS   AND    PERFECTION. 

This  work,  while  developing  those  elements  requisite 
for  maternity,  has  incidentally  developed  the  CONSTITU- 
ENT ELEMENTS  of  female  beauty.  Those  things  render 
a  woman  beautiful  which  capacitate  her  to  bear  fine 
children  :  nor  can  a  single  condition  of  beauty  be  named 
which  does  not  promote  maternity.  And  every  condi- 
tion of  female  beauty  is  beautiful,  BECAUSE  it  promotes 
and  indicates  superior  child-bearing  capabilities,  and  in 
just  that  proportion.  This  principle  we  have  already 
proved,  and  applied  it  to  a  few  physical  elements  of 
beauty.  It  remains  to  continue  that  application  to  some 
other  elements,  so  that  the  reader  may  follow  it  out  into 
its  various  ramifications. 

A   HAMDSOME    SET   OF   TEETH. 

This  element  of  beauty  indicates  balance  and  propor- 
tion of  organization  ;  for  when  the  teeth  are  well- 
proportioned — that  is,  handsome — the  whole  of  the 
physiological  conditions  will  also  be  well-proportioned, 
and  this,  of  course,  as  already  shown,  is  an  important 
maternal  condition  of  bearing  a  fine  child  *2B- 429. 

On  the  contrary,  irregularly-formed  teeth  indicate  a 


ELEMENTS  OF  FEMALE  BEAUTY.         215 

want  of  such  balance,  and  of  course  material  imper 
fection,  which  is  liable,  unless  counteracted,  to  be  trans 
mitted  to  the  child. 

PLUMPNESS    OF    FORM. 

Rotundity  of  features,  or  a  filling  out  of  face  and 
figure,  is  another  essential  ingredient  in  female  beauty 
while  a  thin-faced,  sharp-featured,  angular,  scrawny 
form,  with  here  sharp  bones,  and  there  deep  cavities,  is 
destructive  of  it.  Why  ?  Because  such  fullness — un- 
less caused  by  dropsy,  or  some  other  disease,  which  can 
be  easily  discerned,  and  causes  homeliness  instead  of 
beauty — indicates  abundance  of  that  vitality  already 
shown  to  be  so  essential  an  element  of  child-bearing 
perfection.  As  such  vitality  wanes,  this  plumpness 
gives  place  to  irregularity,  of  which  starving  furnishes 
a  pertinent  illustration ;  and  in  proportion  as  this  condi- 
tion of  beauty  wanes,  does  the  maternal  capacity  de- 
cline. This  coincidence  is  no  mean  proof  of  the  law 
here  involved.  And  that  fullness  of  breasts,  so  essential 
to  the  nursing  department  of  maternity  w4,  is  also  pro- 
moted by  this  same  vitality,  and  consequent  rotundity 
So  is  that  abdominal  and  pelvic  fullness  already  shown 
to  be  both  so  promotive  of  maternity,  and  so  essential 
to  female  beauty  *a  4|9>. 

BRIGHT,    CLEAR,    EXPRESSIVE    EYES, 

Constitute  another  indispensable  condition  of  beauty. 
No  woman  can  be  handsome  with  vague,  dull  eyes. 
Why  ?  Because  such  eye-snap  indicates  soul,  as  well 
as  condensation  and  sprightliness  cf  mentality  ;  where- 
as a  dull  eye  accompanies  lameness  and  flatness  of  body 
and  mind,  obtuseness  of  feeling,  and  vacuity  of  mind. 


216          ELEMENTS  OF  FEMALE  BEAUTY. 

Of  course  the  former,  other  things  being  equal,  wilJ 
have  smart,  sprightly,  bright,  whole-souled  children 
that  are  all  life,  animation,  and  pathos,  as  well  as  clear 
headed  and  efficient,  while  the  latter  will  of  course  have 
soulless  dough-heads,  with  little  mind  and  less  feoling. 

A    FINE,    SOFT    SKIN,    AND    FINE    HA/R, 

Contribute  materially  to  beauty,  and  no  less  to  mater- 
nal excellence,  because  they  indicate  a  fine-grained  and 
exquisite  organization  in  the  mother,  and  this  guaranties 
a  superior  organization  in  their  children — a  condition 
in  children  of  paramount  importance  as  to  talents,  mor- 
als, every  thing. 

AUBURN-COLORED    HAIR 

Has  heretofore  been  considered  a  mark  of  beauty,  so 
much  so  that  painters  have  copied  it  into  their  finest 
pictures.  This  indicates  the  utmost  susceptibility  of 
organization,  intensity  of  feeling,  and  fervidness  of 
imagination,  together  with  refinement,  purity,  memory, 
and  extreme  ardor  of  affection — all  of  which  contribute 
materially  to  maternal  excellence.  Light  skin  and  eyes, 
and  a  florid  complexion,  generally  accompany  this  tem- 
perament, and  add  to  both  beauty  and  maternal  ex- 
cellence. 

FINE,    GLOSSY,    BLACK    HAIR, 

Also  indicates  extreme  activity  and  power  of  brain 
and  nerves,  clearness  and  strength  of  mind,  high  moral 
excellence,  a  thought-manufacturing  cast  of  mind,  dis- 
cernment, judgment,  literary  capabilities,  and  a  FINE  and 
STRONG  organization  combined.  All  these  physiological 
and  mental  conditions  are  essential  to  maternal  excel- 
lence, and  therefore  ace  elements  of  feminine  beauty. 


ELEMENTS    OF    FEMALE    BEAL'TY.  ii!7 

GRACE,    AND    EASE   OF    MOTION, 

Are  indispensable  accompaniments  of  female  beauty, 
and  equally  so  of  maternal  excellence,  because  they  in- 
dicate and  accompany  a  superior  muscular  organiza- 
tion, the  importance  of  which  in  child-bearing  has  al- 
ready been  shown  439,  along  with  good  taste  and  perfec- 
tion of  character,  also  constituent  elements  of  maternal 
excellence. 

PERFECTION   OF   FORM, 

Always  accompanies  corresponding  perfection  of  char- 
acter. This  law  we  will  not  here  attempt  to  prove,  but 
will  refer  those  who  would  understand  the  connection 
implied,  both  here  and  throughout  this  section,  between 
certain  physiological  conditions,  forms,  etc.,  and  cor- 
responding mental  characteristics,  to  a  series  of  arti- 
cles in  the  American  Phrenological  Journal,  entitled, 
"  SIGNS  OF  CHARACTER,  as  indicated  by  Phrenology, 
Physiology,  Physiognomy,  etc."  At  all  events,  such 
perfection  of  form  indicates  corresponding  beauty  of 
soul,  and  perfection  of  mind — the  inner  man  correspond- 
ing with  the  outer — and  this  is  a  most  important  ele- 
ment in  maternal  perfection ;  quite  as  essential  to  it  as 
to  beauty,  and  to  the  latter  BECAUSE  to  the  former 

STRONG    SOCIAL    FACULTIES 

Add  materially  to  that  spirit  and  soul  so  requisite  to 
female  perfection.  What  is  a  woman  without  love  ? 
How  can  she  be  beautiful  without  being  lovely,  or  lovely 
without  being  affectionate?  Love  requires  a  RETURN, 
and  thi«  implies  that  women  should  be  LOVING  in  order 
to  be  lovely.  And  how  much  string  amative,  parental, 
and  connubial  instincts  contribute  to  the  endowment  of 
19 


218 


ELEMENTS    OF    FEMALE    BEAUTY. 


offspring,  the  author  has  shown  in  "  Love  and  Parent 
age."  Love  between  husbands  and  wives  contributes 
immeasurably  to  superiority  in  children.  Parents  who 
cordially  love  each  other,  have  children  decidedly  bet- 
ter than  either  parent,  whereas  the  children  of  those 
who  dislike  each  other  are  inferior  to  both  parents,  for 
reason-s  given  in  Love  and  Parentage.  A  cold-hearted 
woman  is  as  unfit  for  a  mother,  as  she  is  unattractive  in 
society.  Even  if  she  possesses  charms,  she  must  first 
love  in  order  to  develop  or  manifest  them.  This  men- 
tal condition  of  female  charms,  therefore,  promotes 
child-bearing  excellence.  Here,  too,  beauty  and  mater- 
nity centre  in  one  and  the  same  condition. 

A    HIGH    MORAL   TONE 

Contributes  essentially  to  beauty,  especially  of  EX- 
PRESSION. It  adds  a  finishing  touch  to  female  charms 
What  is  woman  without  it  ?  It  adorns  and  ennobles 
men,  but  woman  doubly.  Why  ?  Because  moral  pu- 
rity is  a  paramount  human  excellence,  and  therefore  pe- 
culiarly requisite  in  woman,  to  fit  her  both  to  bring  forth 
and  bring  up  high-toned  and  pure-minded  offspring. 

SUPERIOR    INTELLECTUAL    ENDOWMENTS 

Enhance  the  charms  of  a  woman,  both  because  they 
guarantee  intellectual  children,  which  is  a  superlative 
condition  of  human  perfection,  and  also  superior  educa- 
tional capabilities. 

Superior  conversational  powers  and  teaching  capa- 
bilities  are  important  female  accomplishments,  because, 
among  other  things,  they  indicate  capacity  to  EDUCATE 
children,  as  well  as  to  endow  them  with  good  speaking 
talents. 


HOMELINESS    AND    DEFORMITY.  219 

Bat  it  is  not  necessary  to  give  further  details.  The 
entire  rationale  of  all  female  attractiveness  and  beauty 
is  embodied  in  the  law  under  discussion.  There  is  no 
female  charm,  as  such,  which  is  not  an  index  of  some 
child-bearing-  excellence ;  nor  is  there  any  one  maternal 
excellence  which  is  not  a  constituent  element  of  female 
beauty  and  loveliness.  Let  the  reader  go  over  the 
"POINTS"  of  female  graces,  accomplishments,  beauties, 
and  virtues,  and  he  will  find  the  attractiveness,  or  LOVE- 
ABILITY,  of  every  one  of  them  to  consist  in  the  fact  that 
they  contribute  to  child-bearing. 

Consequently,  she  is  the  most  beautiful,  the  most 
lovely,  the  most  perfect  woman,  who  is  capacitated  to 
bear  the  best  children,  and  BECAUSE  thus  capacitated 
and  every  thing  which  enhances  this  capability  therein 
and  thereby  proportionally  enhances  female  loveliness? 
and  excellence ;  whereas  all  that  diminishes  such  capa 
bility  therefore  decreases  female  attractiveness.  In 
short,  woman  is  rendered  attractive  that  she  may  be 
come  a  mother,  and  the  more  perfect  a  mother,  the  more 
attractive.  Women  who  would  enhance  their  loveli- 
ness— and  this  is  the  great  passion  of  woman,  that  alone 
which  makes  her  dress  fashionably,  adorn  herself,  and 
appear  pretty  and  taking — will  find  the  key  of  self- 
adornment  in  this  book  ;  and  TRUE  women  will  spare  no 
labor  to  increase  both  their  beauty  and  their  maternal 
excellence. 

FEMALE    HOMELINESS    AND    DEFORMITY. 

Some  things  in  women  strike  every  observer  as  ob- 
jectionable, and  render  her  homely.  WHAT  things,  and 
WHY  1  Those  things  which  indicate  deficiency  of  ma- 
teinal  qualifications,  or  that  mar  them,  and  BF.CAUSE  of 


220  REQUISITIONS    IN    A    HUSBAM.    OR    WIVE. 

such  defect  or  marring.  This  needs  neither  proof  nor 
illustration,  for  it  is  necessarily  involved  in  the  preced- 
ing propositions,  and  forms  the  converse  part  of  it.  It 
is  here  introduced  mainly  as  a  text  for  exhorting  women, 
by  all  that  instinctive  value  they  set  on  being  beloved, 
as  well  as  on  their  having  fine  children,  never,  on  ANY 
ACCOUNT,  to  let  ANY  THING  WHATEVER  impair  their  ma- 
ternal qualifications.  Suffer  any  thing,  become  any 
thing,  do  without  any  thing,  rather  than  suffer  this  cen- 
tral charm  of  your  coronet  of  beauty,  loveliness,  and 
perfection,  to  be  dimmed  or  plucked.  This  being  the 
embodiment  of  your  sex  as  such,  guard  it  against  all  in- 
jury as  you  would  guard  your  very  life,  and  cherish  it 
as  the  very  soul  and  centre  of  your  very  existence. 

444.       WHAT    IS    WANTED    IN    A    HUSBAND    OR    WIFE? 

This  eventful  question  is  answered  by  the  entire  tenor 
of  the  work.     Its  centre,  its  focus,  its  one  distinctive 
principle,  tells  every  masculine  seeker  for  a  matrimonial 
partner  that  the  ONE  thing  he  requires  is  a  good  CHILD 
BEARER.     When  he  finds  this,  he  finds  EVERY  THING  ELSE. 
That  is,  those  elements,  in  a  woman,  which  are  best  cal 
culated,  taking  him  as  he  is,  to  produce  the  best  children, 
are  exactly  those  which  are  the  most  perfectly  promo- 
tive  of  that  love  and  connubial  oneness  which  is  the  par- 
amount element  of  conjugal  felicity. 

And  the  one  thing  to  be  sought  by  every  female  in 
marriage,  is  the  best  possible  FATHER  for  her  prospective 
children — not  provider  for  a  family,  but  PARENT  as  such 
And  he  who,  taking  his  and  her  respective  organizations 
into  conjoint  account,  is  capacitated  to  bestow  on  her 
the  highest  order  of  germs  of  humanity,  is  the  one  she 
can  love  best,  and  with  whom  live  most  happily;  be 


CONCLUSION.  291 

cause,  this  being  the  one  natural  rationale  of  marriage, 
he  who  can  best  fulfill  this  condition  is  therefore  best 
adapted  to  fulfill  all  others.  This  is  plain  talk,  but  it  if 
only  the  summing  up  of  the  book,  and  is  exar.tl"  wh*t 
every  matrimonial  candidate  requires  to  krcv» 
19* 


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